The Hualien County Government said Saturday it will assist with the relocation of some 50 dogs at a shelter owned by a prominent benefactor who recently passed away.

Currently, the dogs at Aunty Chu’s Dog Loving Paradise (???????) are all in good health, as determined by the county’s animal and plant health inspection and quarantine office shortly after the owner’s death on July 5, a county official told CNA on Saturday.

The shelter was owned and run by Chu Su-mei (???), a 68-year-old dog lover, who had about 5,000 followers on her shelter’s Facebook fan page.

Director of Hualien’s Department of Agriculture Chen Shu-wen (???) told CNA that the county government will first try to determine whether Chu’s family would want to continue to run the shelter.

If the family decides not to keep the shelter open, the county government will help find homes for the approximately 50 dogs, Chen said.

Those that are not adopted will be relocated to the county’s Dog & Cat Leaping Park, a shelter associated with Hualien’s Department of Agriculture.

Chu was well known in Hualien for her efforts to rescue and shelter abandoned and stray dogs.

She started out by taking in a few dogs, which she kept in her home, but as the number grew, she established a shelter that sometimes housed up to 100 dogs.

While she tried to find homes for as many of them as possible, she always had a large number at the shelter, and she started seeking donations via a Facebook fan page that she named Aunty Chu’s Dog Shelter in Hualien Needs Our Help (??????????????).

Most of the money she received from her followers went towards buying food for the dogs at the shelter.

Following her death on July 5, messages of condolence and tributes to Chu flooded the Facebook page, in recognition of her enduring efforts to rescue and shelter dogs.

Source: Focus Taiwan News Channel