Brian Hioeby Brian Hioe
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Photo Credit: Screenshot
ANIMAL RIGHTS GROUPS held a press conference at the Legislative Yuan earlier this week to call attention to areas in need of improvement, when it comes to strengthening animal protections in Taiwan.
Among the groups that participated in the press conference were the Taiwan Animal Protection Monitor Network, Taiwan Bird Rescue Association, and other groups. Likewise, legislators from both major political camps in Taiwan were in attendance to express their support, making the issue a bipartisan one.
A key demand was raising penalties for animal abuse in Taiwan. According to organizers, 96% of animal abusers frequently face sentences of less than six months in jail. Consequently, current penalties fail to have a deterrent effect. Current penalties stipulate two years in jail as the maximum penalty for the death of an animal.
To this extent, calls were to improve education about animal welfare in Taiwan. In particular, lack of knowledge results in animals ranging from lizards to birds, dogs, and cats being abandoned or killed. As such, the government was also called on to strengthen measures for shelters for animals that are not cats and dogs, as well as to further regulate the sale of such animals. Education for children so that they place the lives of animals in higher regard, too, was called for.
Indeed, it has long been a matter of criticism in the animal rights movement that government policy disproportionately focuses on dogs and cats to the exclusion of other issues. Taiwan currently has no-kill policies for animals after public backlash following the documentary Twelve Nights–detailing how animals were euthanized after twelve days under preceding policies. Between 1997 and 2017, 1.24 million strays are estimated to have been euthanized under this policy.
Livestream of the press conference
As statistics show that Taiwan should currently have 300,000 strays since 2017, that there are thought to only be 140,000 strays is thought to show the success of trap and neuter policies. Still, to further improve such policies, local governments were called on to work on efforts to reduce the number of wild dogs, which prove a threat to other forms of wildlife. Further regulations were demanded on the selling and breeding of dogs and cats, as well as a ban on caging dogs.
To this extent, animal rights groups called for a ban on the practice of racing pigeons. Though such groups have previously called for a national referendum on the issue, this was blocked by the Central Election Commission, which claimed that the intent of the referendum was unclear.
Other measures called for animal rights groups were intended to avoid traps harming animals. For example, restrictions were called for on rat poison. Likewise, a ban was called for snares for wild boars. Apart from the cruelty to wild boars, it was brought up that endangered species such as Formosan black bears and leopard cats had been killed by such traps. And though claims had been made that Indigenous hunters used such traps as part of traditional hunting rights, animal rights groups cited that this was rarely the case, in that Indigenous hunters generally do not use such traps.
It is to be seen if politicians will take action on such issues, then. Animal rights are among the rare political issues in Taiwan that see bipartisan support. But at the same time, politicians have sometimes been hesitant to follow up with action, as observed in the previous bipartisan backing of proposals to enshrine the rights of animals in the constitution that were never followed up because neither party wanted to commit political capital to the issue.