Abstract
Generally speaking, the concern of this thesis is the situation of stray-animals in Taiwan, which is a part of human-animal relationship. Instead of animal right nor animal welfare, I choose “frames” as an appropriate analyze approach. “Frame” is a understanding-tool which can concentrate and simplify the complex real world, it also can help us to find out that how do people understand the issue of stray-animals and what actions would people put into practices. The main frames are “public-health” and “care-ethics”, the former originates from the defense against rabies and the latter oringinates form the caregivers’ sympathy and actions. The conflict between these two frames caused the “problematization” of the stray-animals and their “ungovernability”. To understand and analyze the situation of stray-animals in Taiwan, I suppose that caregiver, institution and policies cannot be (or ought not be) separate from each other. This thesis divided into three dimentions. First, it would start with the historical context of the policies of stray-animals in Taiwan and the current main policies, and thereby reveal how did the public-health frame affect the govern strategy about stray-animals. Second, with the appearance of the caregivers and TNRers, we could describe the care-ethic frame. Third, it suppose that the institutions are places where two different frames impact each other, especially put attention to how do official shelter operates and its power techniques. This thesis attempts to point out the dilemma when it comes to govern stray-animals in Taiwan—the effect of public-health frame fades away day by day, however the care-ethic frame confronts its difficulty in specialization. This dilemma may be the answer to the ungovernability of stray-animals in Taiwan.