Report of Taipei City – the High-Intensity Sterilization Is the Key Improvement Method

*Note: Due to the disapproval of feral dog TNR from Yangmingshan National Park Services, the “Taipei City” referred here needs to exclude its administrated area. Currently only a few individual volunteers within Yangmingshan NP (Beitou / Shilin Dist.) are doing TNR work. The overall TNR rate is extremely low

Status Quo and Recent Change

     In the last 10 years, many dog feeders started to search for ways to do TNR for their roaming dogs. Taipei city is a region with high population density and abundant resources. Thus, the TNR rate of roaming female dogs had already been much higher than nearby areas even before Zero Kill was taken place. After 2016, we kept our TNR focus to several districts. The whole Taipei City is close to complete on the Sterilization Project. There are 3 categories based on the progress -

​The figure below is the recent statistics from the Taipei Dept. of Animal Welfare. We can see the stray dog issue has been significantly improved.
2014: Total 2136 dogs were caught, including 847 juveniles
2017: total 1157 dogs, including 276 juveniles.
 
It can be seen that Taipei City caught less dogs especially the juvenile population.
2015: Total 4925 report/complaint about stray dogs.
2017: Total 2573 report/complaints. Almost improved by 50%.

There are still a few dog frequenting spots needs to be identified. Here is at Beitou mountain area.

Shilin Ruins dog frequenting area

​Stray Dog Issue can be Improved by High Intensity Sterilization

     From the figure below: This is the 2014-2015 statistic information from Dept. of Animal Welfare. It indicates that Beitou, Shilin, Neihu, and Wenshan are the most catastrophic area with regard to dog-catching activities, total >400 dogs in two years – a big gap comparing to the second tier districts (Xinyi, Nangang, Wanhua, Zhongshan).

     From the juvenile dog population: Beitou, Shilin, Neihu, and Wenshan all seriously suffered from the dog reproduction. More than 40% caught ones were juveniles (i.e. every 10 dogs there were 4 younger than half-year old). Thus, if a high-intensity sterilization took place there, at least 40% of the population would have dropped. 

     FFA started to conduct High-intensity Sterlization Project in Taipei City since 2016, and then –

     2017 Massive Reduction of Total Caught.

     The figure below shows the 2014-2017 changes of total dog numbers in each district. Beitou, Shilin, Wenshan, Neihu has a significant reduction. This indicates that the positive results from the whole Taipei City in recent years was mainly due to the Sterilzation Project in targeted, catastrophic areas of dog breeding. 

     2017 The total reports were massively reduced.

     The figure below shows the change of report/complaint numbers. We can see that in Shilin, Neihu, Wenshan the decrease rate was the highest – these areas are the Dog Sterilization Project >80% completion areas. For Beitou Dist, since there are still areas pending completion, the final effect is not reflected fully yet.
Note: Although Zero Kill policy may have impact on the total caught populations, the reporting number shall not be affected.