Sharpe’s shelter survives shake

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, November 1999:

TAIPEI, Taiwan –The Taipei
Abandoned Animal Rescue Foundation
escaped serious harm in the September 20
pre-dawn earthquake that killed at least 2,101
people, injuring 8,700 and leaving at least
153 missing, presumed dead.
“The kennels and the dogs are faring
fine,” TAARF founder Mina Sharpe told
ANIMAL PEOPLE on September 22. “I’ve
taken care of the dogs in the dark for two
days. The kennel has no natural light, so
we’re relying on two flashlights to get things
done. The dogs are a bit more hyper than
usual, but other than that, all is okay. We
have a lot of shelves stacked high and precariously,
yet nothing fell,” despite the first
shock of 7.6 on the Richter scale and aftershocks
as strong as 6.8.

“Our biggest problem,” Sharpe
continued, “is not being able to use water to
clean the kennels,” due to lack of electricity
to run pumps. TAARF, the only no-kill shelter
in Taiwan, was also hurt by temporary
inability to use the Internet at will, the major
means by which Sharpe raises funds and
arranges adoptions.
The British-based Rapid UK sniffer-dog
team dispatched human handlers to
Taiwan, but was unable to send trained dogs
to help find as many as 2,500 people who
were believed to have been trapped beneath
rubble, because the dogs sent to Turkey a
month earlier had been placed in a mandatory
six-month quarantine upon returning to
Britain. The quarantine was imposed because
Turkey is not rabies-free––even though the
dogs were vaccinated before leaving Britain.
Untrained dogs did their best.
No humans were found alive after
September 26, but a dog named Tora was
recovered on September 27, and two dogs
belonging to Tsaotun schoolmaster Lin Yenchen,
named Lucky and Treasure, were
found alive and well in their collapsed home
on October 9. They were reportedly under a
large wooden chair when the earthquake hit,