International adoption pioneer in trouble in California

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, January/February 2007:

 

 

 

International adoption pioneer in trouble in California

 

SAN MARCOS, Calif.--Mina Sharpe, 25, who founded the

Taiwan Abandoned Animal Rescue Foundation in Taipei at age 12, may

be charged with violating probation, after San Marcos animal control

officer Tunis VanBerkum on December 9, 2006 found her keeping 16

dogs and two rabbits in allegedly filthy conditions in a

700-square-foot home.

The animals were surrendered to the Escondido Humane Society.

Earlier in 2006 Sharpe was convicted of keeping 18 dogs in

unsanitary conditions at her former home in Carlsbad, and was

ordered to find other homes for all but two of them.

The Taiwan Abandoned Animal Rescue Foundation was among the

first organizations to arrange international adoptions through the

Internet, and among the first to send animals to the U.S. by finding

travelers who were willing to transport animals as part of their

baggage.

While PETA, the World Society for the Protection of Animals,

and the Humane Society of the U.S. urged Taiwanese pounds to kill

animals with sodium pentobarbital instead of leaving them to die of

starvation and neglect, as was common because of the Buddhist

prohibition on killing, Sharpe argued in a March 2000 guest column

for ANIMAL PEOPLE that international humane organizations working in

Taiwan should instead build on the no-kill ethic. Sharpe asked the

global humane community to help establish high volume, low-cost pet

sterilization in Taiwan, and to promote shelter adoptions.

Sharpe also had a catalytic effect on humane work in

Thailand, where her rescue of an injured dog in 1998 won extensive

media attention and helped to stimulate public discussion about how

Thai neglect of strays was falling short of the Buddhist cultural

ethic.

Sharpe and her family relocated from Taiwan to Carlsbad in

June 2000, bringing along 30 dogs for U.S. adoption, at cost of

$10,000. The dogs were placed with the aid of U.S. organizations

including the Arlington Humane Society, near Seattle, and Pets

Alive, of Westchester, New York.

Sharpe continued to import dogs from Taiwan for U.S.

placement, but never registered TAARF as a U.S. nonprofit

organization, and gradually fell out of contact with her allies and

supporters. Pets Alive founder Sara Whalen told ANIMAL PEOPLE that

her understanding was that Sharpe had retired from rescue several

years before her arrest.

Sharpe remained in occasional contact with ANIMAL PEOPLE

until April 2005, when she was sent yet another of many personal

reminders about the necessity of obtaining nonprofit status and not

taking in more animals than she could place.

 

 

 

--

Merritt Clifton

Editor, ANIMAL PEOPLE

P.O. Box 960

Clinton, WA 98236

 

Telephone: 360-579-2505

Fax: 360-579-2575

E-mail: anmlpepl

Web: www.animalpeoplenews.org

 

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