Father abandons dog in mountains while owner is away > Open Forum

SO YOU take care of a dog that has been abandoned by its owner after it was hit by a car. You nurse it back to health and it lives in the family house for the next six years. You are then posted to Guangzhou and your mother agrees to watch over “Brother.”

The next thing you hear is that your mother came home one day and found Brother missing. Dad said he ran away; sister and mom are skeptical since Brother had a bit of trouble getting around and simply wouldn’t have wandered off. So dad admits what he did: take the dog to a nearby mountain and dump it.

Many Forumosans felt the father was not only cruel, but deserved punishment.

I thought the father ought to spend some time in jail or at least be fined. In fact, it is against the law to abandon an animal according to the Animal Protection Law.

However, most vociferous in the minority was Vannyel, who either was taking the piss out of everyone or actually has a rather rarified sense of morality: ” I think we’ve all been focusing our anger at the wrong party here. The father is innocent. As a matter of fact, the old man was only sitting at home when his daughter ran off and left a homeless mutt at his doorstep. Glad it wasn’t at my dad’s house — he would have shot it.”

On the other side of the coin, perhaps Tigerman put it most succinctly: “I don’t see how anyone can absolve the father of blame and guilt for dumping the dog in the manner that he did, regardless of whether the girl was at fault also.

Dogs are better than most people, and they don’t deserve to be treated in such a cruel fashion.

Fuck that father.”

By the way, if you see cruelty to animals in Taipei, and quite frankly, who hasn’t, you can call 02-87897131 and report the incident. Also, 2931-8464 is the number of the Animal Protection Association of the ROC (¤¤µØ¥Á°ê«OÅ@°Êª«¨ó·|).

New Lonely Planet Taiwan — writers past and present face off > Taiwan Lonely Planet Guidebook > Travel

Like ‘em or hate ‘em, guidebooks are a necessary travel accessory in these post-Vasco de Gamma days. The long-time Taiwan resident and author of the earlier Lonely Planet books on the island came out swinging with, “You’ll be disappointed when you see the new Lonely Planet Taiwan book due to be released in November.”

Rather than descend into invective and other low-brow comments, the thread developed into one of the keenest insights into the hidden ins and outs of putting together a country travel book. The posts by the current author(s) are informative and all reveal well-reasoned arguments.

Internally Corrupted Radio Taiwan? > ICRT – is it serving you? > Living in Taiwan

Ah, ICRT, the station we all love to hate is in on the boards again. New management has decided to make the former “international community” station a mando-pop fodder-mill for the masses.

The poll attached to the thread asks, ” ICRT claims its primary mandate is to serve the foreign community. Do you feel served?”

Yes: 4

No: 45

Although it seems that many posters on Forumosa don’t even listen to the station, media savvy Lol goes to the heart of the matter: “ICRT is a non-profit organization with charitable status. Now to get that status you have to be quite clear about what service you are trying to provide and also pretty clear that you are not simply trying to run a commercial company and dodge tax. Surely providing a service to the foreign community is at the core of ICRT’s legal status as a non-profit charity…it is quite possible that what ICRT is now is, in fact, illegal, in breach of its charitable status.”

Epilogue: As we were ready to go to press, the gods smiled. The abandoned dog turned up wandering at a bus stop not three minutes from home. The vet says he’s beat up but otherwise fine. He’ll be living with the sister, away from dad.

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Wolf Reinhold is a moderator on Forumosa.com, a discussion forum for Taiwan’s online community.