A new animal protection complex in southern Taiwan is challenging the traditional image of a public shelter as a closed, utilitarian space built only to house stray animals.
On September 6, 2026, Tainan officially opened the Xuejia Multifunctional Educational Park, a NT$403 million facility designed to combine animal sheltering with adoption, education and public recreation.
Built on the former site of the Xuejia Sixth Cemetery, the 1.91-hectare campus can accommodate roughly 400 dogs and 40 cats.
But capacity is only part of the idea.
Tainan City Government describes the facility as Taiwan’s first park-style animal protection centre, with four core elements under one project: animal shelters, an education centre, a pet park and recreational walking trails.
The goal is to make animal protection more visible, approachable and connected to everyday community life.
From an old cemetery site to an animal welfare campus
The project took around two and a half years to build. Construction formally began on December 6, 2023, and the main works were completed on March 31, 2026 before the September opening.
The city chose the former Xuejia Sixth Cemetery after relocation work had been completed there, turning an underused site into a new public animal-welfare campus while addressing long-standing roaming-dog concerns in the area.
Mayor Huang Wei-che, who presided over the opening, said the park was intended first to address stray-dog issues in Xuejia and then gradually serve surrounding northern Tainan communities.
The project was developed with financial and policy support from Taiwan’s Ministry of Agriculture, alongside Tainan’s own municipal investment.
A four-in-one model instead of a conventional shelter
What makes the Xuejia project unusual is the attempt to remove the physical and psychological separation between an animal shelter and the community around it.
Xuejia is designed to give residents reasons to visit even when they are not actively looking to adopt.
The campus includes an animal shelter area, education facilities, a pet park and walking trails.
Landscaping, green space and an ecological retention pond are intended to give the site the feel of a public park rather than an isolated holding facility.
That approach could help adoption by bringing shelter animals into a calmer, more welcoming public setting instead of relying only on people who already intend to visit a shelter.
Shelter design puts ventilation and natural light first
The animal housing itself has also been designed around welfare considerations.
The park contains four shelter buildings, with layouts intended to improve natural light and cross-ventilation.
A specialised drainage and cleaning system has been incorporated to make hygiene and routine maintenance easier.
Those features directly affect animal welfare because poor airflow, moisture and difficult-to-clean surfaces can increase stress and disease-management challenges.
Tainan officials say the new buildings were planned with input from professionals familiar with animal behaviour and shelter operations.
The site layout also separates different types of movement — including animal intake, routine operations and public adoption activity — to reduce unnecessary disturbance and noise.
For shelter dogs and cats, that can make a significant difference.
A quieter, better ventilated environment may also help adopters see animals under less stressful conditions.
More than sheltering: education is central to the project
The city has repeatedly emphasised that the Xuejia park is not intended to function only as additional shelter capacity.
Education is one of its core purposes.
Mayor Huang said he hopes elementary and junior high school students from across Tainan will use the site for outdoor learning.
Planned programmes will focus on respect for life, responsible pet ownership, animal protection and preventing cruelty.
The educational focus is meant to address animal welfare earlier, before abandonment, irresponsible ownership or cruelty become problems.
Students will also be able to learn around real animals and shelter professionals rather than only through classroom theory.
The park is also designed to attract ordinary visitors
Tainan has planned a steady calendar of public events to make sure the park does not become a facility that residents visit once and forget.
From September through December, activities are expected to include pet training demonstrations, grooming sessions, interactive games, do-it-yourself workshops, local markets and themed animal events.
Opening celebrations also incorporated art, school performances, food and direct interaction with pets.
The city has discussed linking future events with local tourism activities, including festivals and attractions in the wider area.
The strategy is to place animal protection inside ordinary community life: visitors may arrive for a market or family event and still leave with greater awareness of adoption and responsible ownership.
Adoption is meant to be part of the visitor experience
The landscaping and public-use areas are also intended to increase adoption opportunities.
Rather than keeping shelter animals completely separated from visitors, the park incorporates interaction and adoption functions into the broader site.
Tainan officials say the facility will promote different forms of adoption matching, including placement with households, businesses and other suitable adopters.
The goal is not simply to increase holding capacity, but to turn public visits into more meaningful contact with adoptable animals and ultimately permanent placements.
Sterilisation and disease prevention remain part of the mission
The park will also support the city’s wider stray-animal management work.
The Tainan Animal Health Inspection and Protection Office is responsible for operations and has said the facility will follow strict standards for hygiene, disease prevention and environmental maintenance.
Sterilisation programmes will also be carried out through the park.
Shelter construction alone does not solve free-ranging dog populations, so the Xuejia model depends on sheltering, sterilisation, adoption and education working together.
The NT$403 million price tag has attracted questions
The project has not been free from criticism.
Before the September opening, local reporting noted questions from some Tainan councillors about spending more than NT$400 million on a site designed to house around 400 dogs, plus cats.
Public animal-welfare infrastructure still has to demonstrate value, especially when governments face pressure to manage large roaming-dog populations.
But capacity alone does not capture everything included in the Xuejia investment.
The site also includes educational facilities, public recreation areas, landscaping, pet activity spaces, specialised shelter systems and infrastructure intended to support long-term community use.
The real test will be whether the extra functions deliver measurable results in adoption, sterilisation, education and reduced human-dog conflict.
A new model for how communities meet shelter animals
The most ambitious part of Xuejia may be cultural rather than architectural.
Animal shelters often sit at the edge of public consciousness.
People know they exist, but many never enter one.
By building walking trails, green space, a pet park and events around the shelter function, Tainan is trying to make animal welfare part of everyday community experience.
That could help reduce the “not in my backyard” response often associated with shelter projects by making the site useful to residents as well.
That shift matters because long-term animal welfare depends on community participation.
Municipal agencies can rescue and sterilise animals, but adoption, responsible ownership and cruelty prevention ultimately depend on people.
Xuejia’s success will be measured outside the buildings
The opening of the Xuejia Multifunctional Educational Park is a significant infrastructure milestone for Tainan.
It adds shelter capacity, gives northern Tainan a new animal-protection base and creates space for education, adoption and sterilisation.
But the real measure of success will not be the NT$403 million investment or the number of buildings.
It will be whether fewer animals remain homeless, more dogs and cats find suitable adopters, local stray populations are managed more effectively and young visitors leave with a stronger understanding of responsible pet ownership.
If that happens, Xuejia could offer something more useful than a new shelter.
It could become a working example of how animal protection infrastructure can move from the edge of a city into the centre of community life.
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