Taiwan’s Vice President Lai Qingde volunteered at a public shelter, and he vlogged the day as a promotional video to support animal welfare.

The significance of the Lunar New Year is no less than that of the Western New Year for the Chinese. Although 2021 has begun, Taiwanese people are still celebrating charity activities “Send Warmth at the End of the Year”. They hope everyone would donate their abundant supplies to disadvantaged groups prior to the Spring Festival. Vice President Lai Qingde’s step forward in charities is a grace to the animal protection community!

Lai Qingde’s charity action is divided into two stages. The first stage is to volunteer at Ruifang Animal Home in New Taipei City on January 10, and the second stage is to listen to the opinions of three animal protection groups on January 26. In a press conference, he will release a short video about the animal protection volunteer, and promote the 2021 animal protection notes with his photo on the front page.

This clip of “A Day at Animal Shelter” is actually a record of Vice President Lai’s personal experience on January 10. He is the first head of state to volunteer in an animal shelter in Taiwan (probably the world’s first). He worked hard in high-top rain boots and an apron, and occasionally played with dogs. He certainly enjoyed the shooting process.

The clip demonstrated the main duties of a shelter volunteer — walking the dogs and advertising for adoption. With limited manpower, shelters rely on volunteers to walk the dogs, so that dogs are trapped in cages all day long throughout the year. Adoption is an even tougher task. The adoption rate in Taiwan has been declining in recent years. Volunteers have to dedicate time to publish photos and stories of the shelter dogs on social media networks. 

In the clip, Vice President Lai humorously introduces three kinds of dogs, energetic dogs, family dogs, and companion dogs. He emphasizes the zero cost to pick up a dog that suits your needs from shelters, with the principle “Adopt, Don’t Abandon” in mind.

The clip ends with the slogan “shelters are transfer stations, not terminals”. Vice President Lai, who once served as the mayor of Tainan and took the lead in implementing zero culling of public shelters, is visionary in promoting adoption and reducing stray dogs.

At the press conference on January 26, Vice President Lai urged everyone to volunteer at the shelter to cheer the dogs. Known as Dr. Lai by legislators and city councillors, he will help animal protection groups conduct “physical examinations” on 32 public shelters in 22 counties and cities across Taiwan to eliminate overcaging. Public shelters are not only transfer stations but happiness transfer stations!

A total of 1,000 copies of the 2021 animal insurance notebooks, which include Vice President’s photographs of the “A Day at Animal Shelter”, are priced NTD 320  each. Profits will be donated to animal protection funds. At the end of 2020, President Tsai Ing-wen spoke to support animal welfare. She brought her 3 dogs and 2 cats to join 7 groups of internet celebrities with pets to take pictures to published “Little Tsai Charity Calendar” priced at NTD 350, setting a record sales of 3,500 copies in 9 hours.

Taiwan’s President Tsai Ing-wen’s charity table calendar, with the help of 3 dogs and 2 cats, set an amazing sales record.