In Taipei, stray dogs and cats are a common sight on the streets. Having a pet in your life can be stress-relieving and fun. However, having a pet in Taipei is challenging, not because of the pet itself, but because of the rules for pets and how people treat animals here.

In Taipei, pets are treated poorly. Even though people like to say that Taipei is welcoming towards pets, when it comes to restaurants or public transportation, they are not as welcoming as they say.

Here’s three reasons why Taipei is not as pet-friendly as it seems:

Rules against pets on public transport

The Taiwanese government has made several rules to make it as difficult as possible to get your pet on public transport. If you have a pet bird, you can’t take it onto public transport because it has a chance to spread avian flu. If you have a dog or cat, it must be in a closed cage strapped with water proof tape. These rules are too restrictive and extreme.

It’s fine if you have a small pet that you can carry around, but what if your pet weighs over 15 kilograms? You couldn’t possibly carry around that much weight, and even if you could, this rule is not fair toward people who have bigger dogs.

In many big cities, instead of forcing pets to be in cages, they provide alternative ways for pets to get on public transport. For example, both the Paris Metro and Berlin U-Bahn allow leashed pets onto the metro with an additional fee. This makes it easier for pet owners while still ensuring the safety of the passengers.

However, ironically, the Taipei MRT seems to have no problem with letting drunk people on board. Even though they are the ones that yell and vomit, they are apparently better than dogs on leashes. These rules aren’t just unfriendly towards pets, they are downright stupid.

Taipei forcing dogs to be in cages shows a lack of trust of pets and their owners. Compared to other cities, taking your dog onto the metro in Taipei is more difficult and impractical, showing how unfair the rules are for pets.

Taiwanese people hate pets

It’s hard for a person to walk their dog without being glared at or scolded, and that’s messed up. Oftentimes, Taiwanese people assume dogs are messy and dirty due to stray dogs that run around the city.

However, people need to realize the difference between a dog on the streets and a pet. Just because stray dogs poop in the streets, it doesn’t mean that people should use that as an excuse to be mad at owners walking their dogs.

The people who shout at or scold me for walking my dog have no valid reason for why I shouldn’t be doing it. My neighbors say things like our building is getting stinky because of my dog’s poop that I dispose of properly, but in reality, the smell is because of the rotten egg shells that they use to “fertilize” their plants. Furthermore, a small minority of people not picking up dog poop doesn’t represent all pet owners.

The truth is that some Taiwanese people have a bad image of dogs, and they’re making pet owners feel as if they were doing something illegal. These encounters have made me feel nervous whenever I’m walking my dog even though I’m doing nothing wrong.

Restaurants aren’t pet friendly

Restaurants in Taipei don’t allow dogs inside. I called four restaurants near my house and asked whether or not they would allow dogs or pets into their restaurant and all of the restaurants said no.

Most restaurants even tried to justify themselves by giving reasons as to why they don’t allow dogs inside. The reasons they gave include dogs might pee and poop in their restaurant, dogs are smelly, or dogs might carry diseases.

However, these reasons are not logical. Every dog needs to get vaccinated to prevent diseases, dogs get baths to prevent them from being smelly, and owners can have their dogs do their business before entering the restaurants.

When I tried to tell them this, they didn’t want to hear it. They either hung up on me, or told me to stop wasting their time. None of the restaurants would even consider the facts. The truth is that restaurants don’t want anything to do with dogs for reasons that don’t make sense.

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Taipei is not pet friendly because of the nonsense rules and stereotypes created from bad encounters with stray dogs and cats. However, people need to realize that pet dogs are different from strays, and that pet dogs have owners. Many people in Taipei are not willing to accept dogs on their streets, restaurants, or public transportation, and that’s going to discourage people from adopting or getting a pet.

So the next time you see an owner walking its dog, don’t be a jerk and give them some support.