Schools ponder how to muzzle stray dog menace｜Taiwan News

Dogs are known as man’s best friend, but they can also be a menace. Schools are reporting a spate of stray dog attacks on students, staff, and even other wildlife on campus. Why are dogs such a problem for Taiwan’s school campuses? What can be done to manage their threat? We find out in our Sunday special report.
It’s 7 in the morning. Here on the serene campus of National Chengchi University, locals exercise by the riverside, some accompanied by their dogs.
At a nearby baseball field, five dogs lounge under the sun. The scene is idyllic enough, but it belies a big headache for school administrators, because these dogs are unwelcome guests.
Tsai Yu-hsin
National Chengchi University administrator
This year we’ve had two incidents involving the dogs biting students and faculty, one in February and another at the end of April. So actually the school is quite anxious about these dogs.
Nearly every year, there are dog bite incidents involving the school’s students or faculty. Administrators say that getting bitten by a dog is a matter of chance. Even so, they’ve asked Taipei’s Animal Protection Office to come to the campus each week, to try to remove dogs that bite.
Animal control workers have arrived to try their luck. They’ve been here umpteenth times before without success, as the strays are hard to catch.
Lin Ting-chun
Taipei’s Animal Protection Office
When unfamiliar people approach in wide open spaces, animals easily get skittish. So as you saw earlier, when we started to approach them, they went on high alert. That’s one of the bigger challenges we face.
Two tranquilizer darts miss their mark, the black-and-white pack leader. The other dogs scatter into the overgrown riverbank, as the pack leader vanishes into the mountains. Foiled again, the animal control workers beat a retreat, one with an injury from the chase.
Lin Ting-chun
Taipei’s Animal Protection Office
We’ve been trying to catch that dog for a long time. Last time, one of our colleagues had it under a net. That yellow fence wasn’t there at the time. After getting caught under the net, the dog ran right over the precipice. Our colleague fell over it, too. The dog was fine afterward and it ran off.
According to the Ministry of Agriculture, Taiwan’s stray dog population was close to 160,000 in 2023. Strays often gravitate to schools, as campuses provide the perfect haven.
Tsai Yu-hsin
National Chengchi University administrator
Our campus isn’t fenced off. It’s also very expansive. So there are lots of places where dogs can hide out on campus. It’s also a fairly comfortable environment. In the eyes of a dog, it’s a giant park.
Humans and dogs once coexisted in peace at National Chengchi University. But due to a recent spate of dog bite incidents, there’s now tension in the relationship.
Tsai Yu-hsin
National Chengchi University administrator
The teacher was just walking by the embankment, near the baseball field. Just walking by, and the dog approached to bite.
Ho Chieh-en
Former student association president
Our students are unable to know whether a given dog is friendly or aggressive. Sometimes you can pass by a dog and nothing happens, but then other times, the same dog will bite you for no reason. For students at our school, this is an enormous issue.
Apart from biting people, stray dogs can harm other wildlife on school campuses. Chuang Po-chun, a forestry student at National Taiwan University, saw a dog kill a Formosan gem-faced civet, which he was studying in his lab.
Chuang Po-chun
NTU student
It was attacked by a stray dog, chased around and finally bitten to death. Its body was covered by bite marks and some of its organs were falling out.
Stray dogs hunt not just out of hunger but for sport. College campuses, with their towering trees and green spaces, are home to various wildlife that find themselves at odds with local dogs. At National Chengchi University, the Formosan ferret-badger is a frequent casualty.
Lin Tzu-chun
National Chengchi University administrator
Every year there are one or two incidents. The most obvious sign is tangled fur. The other reason we suspect a dog killing is that the predator didn’t try to eat it. This means that predator was well-fed. It wasn’t lacking for food.
Kuo Hsuan
Faith for Animals director
The numbers very clearly trend downward from 2007 to 2023, ending in the single digits last year.
Kuo Hsuan is a long-time advocate for stray animals. She takes out photos from over a decade ago: pictures of National Taiwan University’s campus with stray dogs in every corner, from parking lots to the baseball field. With this teeming population came problems like dogs biting people and chasing cars. Animal control was often called i
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