Taiwan Is Going to the Dogs (and Cats)

Huang Yi-ke, age 33, inherited the family business: a store specializing in hair fashion accessories located in the Shihlin Night Market. Her mother is a dog lover and they have always had five to eight dogs at home. Dogs have been members of the family and part of her life for as long as she can remember.

Yi-ke began bringing her cleverer dogs to work with her to stave off the boredom, never imagining that they would become "live attractions" for her shop. Many customers, little furry friends in tow, have ventured into Yi-ke's shop and become good friends with her as a result of their common love for dogs.

Frugal by nature, Yi-ke frequently spends less than NT$100 a day on herself, but she is not the least bit tightfisted when it comes to her dogs. A few years back, she had a large Lhasa Apso-indigenous Taiwanese breed mix by the name of Fanfan. Yi-ke ran around from clinic to clinic with him for six months trying to treat an unidentified viral infection in his leg. Fanfan's leg was later amputated to prevent the disease from spreading. Yi-ke would carry the ten-plus kilo dog up and down the stairs leading to her fourth-floor flat, and even rustled up a baby carriage to facilitate transporting him to the vet. Despite her efforts and more than NT$200,000 sunk into medical bills, Fanfan eventually succumbed to his illness. His death has become a source of terrible pain for Yi-ke. Even now, her eyes fill with tears whenever she discusses this chapter in her life with friends.

Taipei's renowned "pet restaurant," the Gustav Puppy Cafe, offers meals for people and pooches as well as Taiwan's first fortune telling service for dogs.

A cat house?

Li Chao-hua cannot explain her fondness for cats. She says there is no reason for it; she has simply always loved them.

A 30-year old deputy editor-in-chief for a financial investment magazine, Chao-hua currently has 11 feline friends which set her back NT$6-7,000 per month in catfood alone. The task of feeding them, however, pales in comparison with the regular chore of changing their kitty litter. Chao-hua has even seriously considered buying a pushcart to transport the large quantities of litter when she takes out the garbage.

Keeping pets in the city is inconvenient enough, but Chao-hua believes that very few landlords would be willing to put up with a tenant owning so many cats, so she bought a house to give her babies a safe place they could call home.

With the exception of one cat given to her by a friend, all of Chao-hua's feline friends were strays picked up off the street or abandoned cats adopted over the Internet. Over a period of four years, she has brought home over 40 cats. At her peak, she had about 20.

Living alone in Taipei, her cats have become Chao-hua's biggest comfort after she gets off work. Their dependence on and affection for her have made Chao-hua and her cats inseparable.

Pet restaurants and pet motels of all kinds have been sprouting up as pets become more popular in Taiwan (top left). As personal buying power has improved, pet owners have been able to give their pets better lives. Pet snacks and beauty salons have become commonplace.

Dog blog

Tsai Wen-hsin used to have no interest in pets. Taking care of Momo, a Maltese-Shih Tzu mix, for family members when they went abroad was "the start of something beautiful." Now, she is crazy about dogs and has taken over the responsibility of caring for Momo on a permanent basis.

Currently unemployed, Wen-hsin has been married for several years, but has no plans to have children. Consequently, Momo, who she showers with hugs and kisses, has become the center of her daily life.

An artist by training, she has created lots of adorable doggy outfits for Momo, including a traditional Tang Dynasty costume for Chinese New Year and a sheep costume. They get more than their share of second looks when she takes Momo out. She also takes Momo to a nearby dog beauty salon once a week for a shampoo and brushing.

On a whim, Wen-hsin took photographs of Momo and arranged them in a photo album. She also goes online every evening to post to a blog that she has set up for Momo. This is taking pet devotion to new heights.

Wen-hsin has seen pet saunas, which are currently in vogue, at a beauty salon for pets. Most of the dog owners look on with expressions of satisfaction, but who knows how the canine clients feel about the saunas. Wen-hsin has remained reluctant to let Momo try out the service and the specially made sauna chambers.

Li Chao-hua bought a house with her 11 cats in mind to give them a warm, safe place they could call their own.

It's a dog's life and that ain't bad

Some people are almost obsessive in their love for their critter pals, wanting to take them wherever they go, but that is not always possible. Many restaurants refuse admittance to cats and dogs, but in recent years, pet restaurants have been popping up to meet increasing demand. Some popular ones are doing so well that they resemble miniature zoos. Their clientele come to play with their pets and eat. These places are almost like pet clubs, because "members" get to know each other very quickly due to their common interests.

Situated in downtown Taipei near the National Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hall, the Gustav Puppy Cafe used to be just pet-friendly, but at the end of last year, it became the first restaurant in Taiwan to offer fortune-telling services for pets.

Why in heaven's name, you might ask, would a dog need its fortune told? Our sources explain that pet fortune telling is not necessarily concerned with such things as previous lives, the current one, or future romantic encounters. Rather, these oracles combine the art of naming, date of birth and the eight characters of a horoscope, the Five Elements, Yi Jing divination, and the study of color to deal with more practical everyday issues, like finding lost pets, understanding their health, disease prevention, and even using the art of physiognomy to determine whether or not a pooch will place in an upcoming competition.

The pet oracle explains that in order to ensure that a pet's fortune is read accurately, its Chinese name and date of birth need to be provided.

The Gustav Puppy Cafe is a family business run by a young husband and wife team and their dog. Their pet soothsaying only costs NT$200, but let the buyer beware-there's really no way of knowing just how precise it is as, well, the animals cannot tell you.

In other news, a number of people signed up for an unprecedented adhisthana (assistance in spiritual progress-literally, "empowerment" and "responding") ceremony held in a Nantou temple last summer to convert their doggies to Buddhism.

It turns out that many of these pet owners love their pets so much that they take them to study under Buddhist masters in the hope that in the next life, they don't have to come back as animals. They receive "certificates of conversion" which include the pets' Buddhist names, specially selected by the Buddhist masters, written at the top.

These Buddhist masters point out that because every living thing has a Buddha-nature, they do not turn away animals that come to be converted. Whether or not the animals will be reincarnated as higher beings depends on what kind of lives they lead this time around.

The fortune tellers and spiritual guidance for pets are evidence of the concern that Taiwanese feel for their pets. A concern that is shared in China, which has been experiencing its own pet mania in recent years.

According to an AFP report early this year, the number of dogs in mainland China has reached 150 million. Last year in Beijing, for example, that number surpassed 500,000 as owners spent over RMB500 million on their precious canines. It is predicted that the dog food and accessories market will reach RMB15 billion by 2008-nothing to sneeze at, by any means.

Pet restaurants and pet motels of all kinds have been sprouting up as pets become more popular in Taiwan (top left). As personal buying power has improved, pet owners have been able to give their pets better lives. Pet snacks and beauty salons have become commonplace.

Doggy ice cream and cell phones

While pets certainly have gained status in Taiwan, what new pet trends can be found elsewhere around the world? The fact of the matter is western nations have long had a soft spot for pets and, as a result, have seen a steady stream of peripheral pet products.

Not too long ago, a petfood company in Brussels, Belgium developed an ice cream bar shaped like a bone that's sure to get Fido drooling. Sources explain that this canine ice cream is rich in vegetable fiber to aid in digestion. These popular, nonfattening doggy treats are sold six to a pack and are reasonably priced at around NT$160-180.

With a new doggy cell phone developed in the US, dog owners no longer have to worry about their four-legged friends while at work, when they go out, or if they don't have time to spend with them. The technology used in the doggy phone is identical to that used in its human counterpart. The bone-shaped phone is five inches long, three inches wide, and is hung from the dog's collar. An owner that misses his/her furry pal can call it up. After the phone picks up automatically on the first ring, the master can talk to his/her dog and possibly hear it yap in reply. Could anything be more touching?

Another model boasts a camera which allows owners to see their dogs and, if needed, make simple commands, like "sit," through the pet phone to stop it from doing anything it shouldn't be doing. This model also comes equipped with a special feature that helps owners find their stray pooches. The Good Samaritan that finds it can notify the owner by simply pressing any button on the phone. This automatically dials up the owner's preset phone number.

Some say that the advent of an "age of pets" is an inevitable stage in the development of society, but raising pets isn't just another fad. Prospective pet owners should think carefully before deciding to commit themselves to a lifelong relationship with one of these living, feeling beings.

Doggy parks and mountain trails

With the increasing popularity of pets, it is becoming more important to open up more places for them. At the beginning of this year, the Kaohsiung City Government opened up five dog parks on a trial basis. To make cleaning up after dogs easier, the parks are equipped with sand and plastic bags.

To ensure that both dogs and humans share the parks harmoniously, the city government is calling on dog owners to "Keep their dogs on leashes and clean up after them." In Taipei, mountain trails for dogs, promoted unsuccessfully a number of times in the past by the city government, were finally inaugurated in late February. Plans initiated by Mayor Ma Ying-jeou at the behest of Taipei City residents to launch pet parks in Taipei were set aside after being snubbed by 12 administrative districts. The Taipei Municipal Institute for Animal Health (TMIAH) was left with no choice but to offer the next best thing-canine mountain trails.

TMIAH selected Shihlin's Talunshan Touwei footpath as well as paths near Yuanchueh Temple and the Animal House in Neihu on a trial basis to give pooches a chance to enjoy hiking in the mountains.

The TMIAH explains that it surveyed 37 hiking paths in the Taipei area, but to keep dogs and people from vying for the paths, later narrowed it down to a few wide, paved paths with convenient parking and fewer human users.

Dog owners are reminded to keep their dogs on leashes when they go hiking. Special cases stocked with plastic bags are provided along the pathways so that humans can do their doggy doo-ty.

TMIAH director Yan Yi-feng points out that the plastic doggy poop bags are made of a special biodegradable material to keep environmental pollution to a minimum in case they are disposed of improperly. The chemical composition of the bag materials is marked clearly on the outside to remind individuals that these bags should not be used for food storage or taken to be used as garbage bags back home.

The TMIAH also points out that it will strictly enforce regulations requiring pet owners to keep their dogs on leashes and clean up after them. According to animal protection laws, owners can be fined NT$2,000-NT$10,000 for failing to keep their charges on a leash and a minimum of NT$4,000 for not immediately cleaning up after them. This is being done in the hope that individuals that have an aversion to dogs will at least grow to tolerate them. This pet project is scheduled to last three months. If all goes well, it will be expanded and non-governmental sponsorship and adoption encouraged.

Pet restaurants and pet motels of all kinds have been sprouting up as pets become more popular in Taiwan (top left). As personal buying power has improved, pet owners have been able to give their pets better lives. Pet snacks and beauty salons have become commonplace.

Here to stay

Strictly speaking, pet mania in Taiwan isn't really news. Back in the 1980s, when Taiwan's economy was taking off and the stock market was booming, raising primates was all the vogue. At the time, wildlife could be bought for a song in such Southeast Asian nations as Indonesia and then resold at astronomical prices in Taiwan. (Needless to say, poachers and smugglers were more than willing to oblige.) This chapter in the history of pets in Taiwan would later reach an all-time low when people were injured by orangutans abandoned by their owners.

Some say that the advent of an "age of pets" is an inevitable stage in the development of Taiwan society. This is because the prerequisite to its development is the feeling of emptiness, both spiritual and emotional, that follows in the wake of an abundant material life. They go on to say that most pet owners are DINKs, singles, the elderly, and kids. Perhaps some object to this pet craze, but looked at in another light, pets might be soothing for the soul. In any case, anybody contemplating getting a pet should remember that pets are not just another passing fad. If you get one, you do so for the long haul. Each one is a living, feeling being. Prospective pet owners should think thrice before deciding to commit themselves to a lifelong relationship with one.

A variety of products depicting dogs and cats has followed in the wake of Taiwan's pet craze

Tsai Wen-hsin goes online everyday to add to Momo's dog blog.

Having lived alone in Taipei for years, the dependence and emotions that her kitties have for her have become Li Chao-hua's most important emotional comfort after work.

Taipei's renowned "pet restaurant," the Gustav Puppy Cafe, offers meals for people and pooches as well as Taiwan's first fortune telling service for dogs.