Stray Animals in Your Life

  Have you ever gone to a stray animal shelter? I go to the shelter once or twice a week to take care of dogs and cats. Actually, I'm a volunteer for the Stray Animal Volunteer Team at NCKU. Now in the shelter of NCKU, we keep about ten dogs and some kittens. Stray animals mean that animals have neither an owner nor a stable home, and they usually wander around where they can find food easily. At NCKU, they used to live on the campuses with inconsistent food supplies. To prevent them from impacting students and teachers, the school established a volunteer team. However, taking care of animals is not a simple deal, let me tell you more about stray animals!

-Why Shouldn't We Feed Stray Animals?-

Have you ever fed any stray dogs or cats? You might think they are poor little things living on the street so you bought some cans or snacks to feed them, right? I do the same before I join the Stray Animal Volunteer Team. “Please don't feed any stray animals!” said my elder schoolmates. It wasn't until that information session that I understood feeding stray animals is not good behavior. The reason why people should stop feeding stray animals is that if people keep giving those animals food, they will choose to stay in the same spot and wait for people to give them more food. Nevertheless, this could make the environment dirty, noisy, and even dangerous. 

-The Negative Impact-

Stray animals could cause several problems. Take the dogs that settled on our campuses as an example. They have lived in our college for a long time. The main reason is some residents and professors usually bring them bones, leftovers, and even something dogs shouldn't eat, such as cakes and doughnuts! Not only dog waste but also this kind of “snacks“ causes a dirty environment. The next problem is the noise. When the estrus cycle occurs, animals usually make noise to attract the opposite sexes resulting in noisy sounds at night. Unaltered animals will cause overpopulation. It can be a negative cycle if the newborn baby animals grow up and give birth to more babies. That's why one of our team’s slogans is “If you love them, give them a home.”  Last but not least, I want to talk about the danger of these animals. Most of the stray dogs are not tame and friendly at all, sometimes they bark at or even chase pedestrians, bikers, and other dogs that pass by their territory, which scares several students. Besides, these dogs do not get cleaned regularly, and some fleas could hide in their fur. If you don't want to have fleas, don't touch stray animals!

-The Chubby Stray Animals-

Many stray animals are starving for most of their lives, they look so skinny that you can see the shape of bones on their body while some dogs look chubby or even fat like a car. Why? This is also a result of overfeeding or improper feeding of animals. Last week, I saw a black dog wandering next to a wet market. I thought it was absolutely overweight. There were many leftovers in the market, and the food for humans could be too greasy for animals. However, if the dog wasn't picky, it would eat whatever it thought it's food! Greasy food could cause Cardiovascular Diseases such as heart disease, hypertension, etc. Also, a heavy body could cause cardiovascular strain. If you like healthy-looking animals, do not feed them too much human food.

I hope this article can let more people who also love animals know about the right way to treat stray animals. If you love them, give them a home🩷