In a country overrun with stray dogs, one family decided to dedicate everything to taking care of as many as possible. Mrs. Hsu’s Sanctuary, a family-owned shelter in Taiwan, is home to over 3,000 dogs of all shapes, sizes, and colors.
The shelter opened up five years ago and began taking in a small amount of strays — but that number continued to grow and grow. That’s when a Good Samaritan stepped in and donated a large facility to properly house all of the dogs.
Taiwan just became the first country ever to ban the euthanization of stray dogs to control the population. So now, shelters like this are putting a greater focus on spaying and neutering programs. They hope it will raise awareness about the effects of breeding.
The shelter has a number of dogs with missing legs or paralysis in their back legs, so they have a special builder who makes custom, low-cost wheelchairs for any dog who needs one. If any dog comes in with too critical of an injury, they are taken to a local animal hospital instead.
Mrs. Hsu’s Sanctuary provides veterinary care, a large room for grooming, and a night room where the dogs get to sleep in style. And there is a separate room just for cats.
The strays spend the day out in the park area where they can roam and play together. Volunteers also take them on daily walks! 🙂
Angel Wang, a volunteer at the shelter, loves spending one-on-one time with all of the dogs. And that’s how she met her best friend. A shaggy gray dog caught her attention by following her around all day, and their months in the shelter together turned into years. Finally, Angel made it official and adopted Huei Huei!
It was just meant to be! 🙂
The number of dogs far outnumber the staff members at the shelter, so people throughout the community work around the clock to help care for the strays. They are fully funded by donations from the locals who believe in their work.
The family, staff members, and volunteers love nothing more than caring for these strays and seeing them happy. The 3,000 smiles they see daily make it worth all of the hard work. 🙂
What an amazing place full of amazing people! If you want to see more, make sure you follow the shelter on Facebook.
Photo credits: Angel Wang
h/t The Dodo
