I’ve recently been asked why I allow Taiwan dogs to be adopted overseas. Am I not contributing to the problems in other countries? A very valid question that at one time held a very black and white answer for me. Then it began to conflict me as the gray areas clouded my judgment. After living and working all over SE Asia for 15 years, where street dogs can be a real problem and shelter standards and resources are far below anything most would consider acceptable, I began to question my own authority. Fifteen years ago, when I started working with animals in Thailand and Cambodia, my answer would have been a resounding, “NO! We are not sending Asia’s problems to the USA. For every dog we send there, we condemn an American dog to death.” But a lot has changed in those 15 years, especially in countries like the USA, Canada, France, and Holland. Thus, so did my perspective. 

I’m an American. I have volunteered for many shelters in the USA. And I’ve worked several disasters which have flooded certain shelters beyond repair so let’s focus on the USA here. A lot has changed since Hurricane Katrina turned the world’s eyes on USA shelters and the way we keep our animals. In the 1980s, when I adopted my first rescue dog, The USA euthanized more than 20 million unwanted dogs and cats a year. That number has since dropped to just about 1.6 million nationwide, of those, 670,000 are dogs, and those dogs are usually the ones with severe behavioral problems, considered unadoptable. This means there is a shortage of very adoptable dogs in many of the shelters.

Adoptions in the USA have increased by more than 56% in the past 5 years. It’s trendy to adopt in America, And the “dog pounds” of the past are now much more like educational community centers with dogs; dogs that need rehabilitation, which is where Zach Stow’s Marley’s Mutts prison programs come in. They educate the youth and they work hard to match shelter dogs with behavioral issues with tough prisoners and train the prisoners to become professional dog trainers. The program is wildly successful. Muttville specializes in hard to adopt elderly dogs with their Seniors for Seniors programs, adopting out over 1000 senior dogs a year. And the Taiwanese organizations Mary’s Doggies and Ahan specialize in placing Taiwan’s unwanted street dogs into good homes in California, a state that has virtually outlawed puppy mills and pet shop dog sales. In fact, California is the dog adoption Capital of the west. We have three PACK dogs living in lovely homes in the bay area now. 

But before I committed to really start focussing on overseas adoptions I wanted to make sure I knew what I was talking about. So I attended the Humane Society’s Animal Sheltering conference in New Orleans in May 2019 and met with and spoke with at least 30 global shelter representatives. I then went on an east coast and west coast shelter tour. I was shocked to learn that there are shelters all over the USA that are in fact starving for animals. 90% of the shelters I visited were drastically under-dogged, some with just 30-70 dogs and rows of empty runs and kennels - a good thing, right? 

“Not if you want to stay in business,” says Gloria of Buddy Dog Humane Society, Mass. To my surprise, the more populated shelters of the southern states are now transporting hard to place pit bulls to northern shelters that are struggling to stay open. And even more shockingly, I learned that some shelters in the USA and the UK are actually actively breeding dogs to stay in business. Okay, what?

“Hello,” I said into the microphone from the back of the room at the Animal Sheltering conference, “I have 300 Asian dogs in desperate need of good homes. They’ve been pining away in a makeshift shelter in a cobra infested jungle for 5-8 years. No one wants them here.” Sherri Franklin, CEO of Muttville, replied from the podium, “let’s talk.” Several organizations offered to work with me that week but only a few I felt were of the quality that met my own high standards of placement. Before our dogs go overseas, not only do they undergo training and foster home care, but I must know there is a pre-qualified adopter waiting. We have too much invested in these dogs. 

And the sad fact is, many of our dogs don’t belong in Taiwan, to begin with. Irresponsible breeding is out of control here. There are over 220,000 dogs bred in Taiwan a year, literally making it almost impossible to adopt dogs here. We have Mastiffs, Danes, Border Collies, Huskies, German Shepherds, and other cool and dry climate dogs. They don’t fair well in Taiwan. They develop serious allergies and skin infections from the tropical weather. These and the many 3-legged dogs (the misfits) are the dogs I wanted to focus on first because, well, if anyone knows what it’s like to be a misfit or a mutt, it’s us Americans.

As is these reasons were not enough for me to reconsider my viewpoint, we still have some Taiwanese who adopt dogs for the dinner table. Yep, you heard me right. It’s not prevalent but it still happens. On March 15, 2018 ETToday reported 14 dogs were adopted and cooked up for din din. Petsmao News reported a similar story just weeks later with 18 dogs winding up in a butcher shop. 

This is why our adoption policy is very very strict in Taiwan. We vet our adopters very carefully and do frequent home-checks. We actively educate the public at pet expos and in classrooms and we do adopt locally when we can but the new government no-kill laws with zero plans for sterilization have created another problem far worse than I could have imagined. The reality is, Taiwan has more than 39,000 dogs and cats crammed into 60 or more shelters and the majority of the human population is still fixated on designer bred dogs for sale in pet shops. Huskies, Shibas, and Corgis are big right now. And we rescue them from bad homes. But we can adopt those out here in a day. The local dogs and mixed breeds pine away in the shelter for years. Over time, they literally lose their minds and either become feral or exhibit psychological stereotypic behavior. In other words, they sway and pace and growl and chew themselves like prisoners in a cell, because that's what they are. Sure we provide as much space and enrichment as we can but with 300 dogs and so little resources, sadly the human animal bond gets lost. 
 
So, why not give Taiwan's local dogs a second chance at life? Shelter life is not living; it’s existing. Why not send a cold climate dog that should never have been bred in Taiwan back to the climate where she belongs and with a good family? After all, this is one earth we live on and these arbitrary boundaries we draw in the sand are part of the problem, not the solution. Taiwan’s dogs are loyal, easy to train, and have very healthy genes. They are planet earth’s dogs and deserve a second chance, regardless of the lines we humans have drawn in the sand. We are all earthlings.

​In April 2019, while working on elephant cruelty investigations, PACK CEO Tim Gorski came across a dying street dog seeking refuge in a residential garage. The owners of the house wanted to help but really didn't know what to do. The nearest vet is over an hour away. Tim agreed to take Pepsi to the vet to be treated, vaccinated, and neutered. Tim then helped the homeowners adopt Pepsi by teaching them proper care. This is the result of that minimal effort just 3 months later.
PACK cannot save animals and educate people without your support. YOU made this happen.

今年四月，PACK執行長Tim Gorski在泰國進行受虐大象調查時，遇到一隻垂死的浪浪Pepsi，倒臥在一個民宅前的垃圾堆中。民宅屋主想要幫忙，但卻不知道該怎麼做，而最近的獸醫大約要開車一個小時。Tim決定幫助Pepsi, 帶他到獸醫那裏診治，打預防針並結紮。接著再帶Pepsi回到民宅主人那裡，教導民宅一家人如何照顧受傷的Pepsi。透過影片，你可以看到Pepsi這三個月的轉變。
沒有您的贊助捐款，PACK便無法幫助傷病動物，獲得妥善的醫護並安置動物到最合適的家。您是推動PACK營運和救援生命真正的幕後英雄! 因為您，我們才能持續幫助更多無助的毛孩們!
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PACK月營運至少一百萬。目前醫療債款15萬仍未還清，同時醫護費用仍持續增加當中。外加最近接獲太多棄養未結紮案件，每一隻狗在台灣的血檢、心絲蟲藥和結紮費用加起來將近一萬元。需要大家一起分享幫忙更多生命!

There's a good reason to celebrate the Year of the Pig. Pigs are among the most intelligent animals and are known for their long memories and sophisticated communication skills. They're playful, sensitive beings who, like humans, love and cherish their families. We know because we have seven rescued pigs at PACK Sanctuary and over 100 rescued and living in peace at our new affiliate's farm sanctuary in Linkou. 

But many pigs born over this Lunar New Year won't live long enough to see the next one.
Instead, on farms around the world, they'll be taken away from their mothers just days after their birth to enter a short and grueling life on a factory pork farm just to fill our bellies with that salty meat. Naturally pigs can live for more than a decade, but after as little as five months spent inside a dark, crowded warehouse, many will face a terrifying journey to the slaughterhouse, where they will be violently killed and dismembered, all so that their flesh can become someone's pork.

Imagine for a moment the absolute terror of being torn away from your family, mutilated, and imprisoned for months in a filthy, windowless shed with others like you. Millions of smart, sensitive pigs endure this abuse each year. Whether such misery takes place on a farm in Asia or the U.S., the pain and fear experienced by these animals is the same.

Please make this year a good one for pigs by considering to lower your pork intake. There are so many mock meats and pork alternatives now that taste greta and provide even better nutritional value. We love pigs at PACK. That's why we don't eat them. 

Tim Gorski
​CEO - PACK SANCTUARY 

祝您豬年諸事如意行大運。告別了狗年，讓我們一起歡慶豬年的到來。
千萬別小看我們的豬朋友，它可是排行前幾名聰明的動物，有著驚人的記憶力和溝通技能。
巴克園區目前照顧七隻獲救的快樂豬兒。它們跟人類一樣喜歡跟家人一起享受天倫，有著細膩的感受，熱愛與同伴遊戲。
不同於住在巴克園區的快樂豬群，很多年節期間出生的小肉豬多活不過明年。多數豬繁殖場在小豬出生後不久，便將其帶離母親，進入育肥階段; 飼養至四~六個月大，體重達標後，小豬便要面臨屠宰的命運。
一般家豬平均壽命為20年，野豬可活到50年。肉豬就沒有那麼幸運了; 豬寶寶出生後在狹小且光線不足的豬圈環境生活大約五六個月後，便被送進屠宰場，成為人類餐桌上的食物。
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今天捐款幫助更多生命，一起跟巴克過一個友善豬豬的農曆新年! 您的定期捐款能夠幫助我們提供園區的豬群不間斷的照護。

想像一下，一群生命被監禁在骯髒，沒有窗戶的棚子裡，沒有家人，只有恐懼。每年有數百萬隻豬承受這樣的對待。無論在亞洲或美國，養豬場的小生命所經歷的痛苦和恐懼都一樣。
根據一些臥底豬場的調查人員所述，許多豬場工人會踢母豬，甚至用金屬棒毆打它們，拿東西戳瞎豬眼睛。更有錄像拍到豬仔們被抓起並多次撞擊地板致死。柬埔寨金邊的屠宰場工人一次又一次地用金屬管狠狠砸豬的頭部，每次敲擊，豬便痛到大叫。其中有一頭豬在斷氣之前，經歷了金屬管狠狠敲擊了六次。

沒有任何動物天生下來就該承受這樣的苦痛。PACK邀請您一起關懷豬朋友。你今天的捐款將幫助更多動物免於監禁、虐待和殺害的恐懼。想要更積極的減輕豬豬們的痛苦？您或許可以考慮減少豬肉量的攝取。一週安排一天不吃豬肉，或一季安排一週不吃豬肉，您跟家人每年可以挽救數十條小豬的生命。

豬跟人類一樣愛家，珍惜自己的生命。您的捐款將推動巴克幫助豬豬和更多動物生命脫離苦難和恐懼。感謝您為動物付出的一切。

Tim Gorski
​CEO - PACK SANCTUARY ​