Animal-rights groups yesterday protested against China's plan to send two giant pandas to Taiwan, saying the endangered animals should remain in their natural habitat.
Ten animal rights groups expressed their stance after China announced yesterday morning that it will give a pair of pandas to Taiwan as a peace gesture. Taiwan welcomed the offer but said Beijing must hold official talks with Taipei on the issue.
"We are opposed to politicians' exchanging animals as gifts to achieve political aims. We think pandas should remain in their natural habitat and not be sent to Taiwan to be viewed by tourists," said Chu Tseng-hung (朱增宏), the director-general of the Environment & Animals Society of Taiwan.
"Taiwanese officials say they plan to approve receiving the pandas for education and research purposes. If that is true, Taiwan should contribute funds to the research on pandas in China," he said.
Chu said Taipei Zoo is already cramped and budget-strapped. Raising two pandas requires one-eighth of the zoo's budget and would make things worse, he said.
Chu said that even if public opinion polls show that the majority of Taiwanese welcome the pandas, animal-rights groups will still express their opposition.
More than 20 animal rights, environmental, social and women's groups said they will sign a petition against the panda plan, and will launch a signature-gathering drive on their Web sites, Chu said.
Pandas are endangered animals and their movements are strictly monitored by the UN Convention on International Trade and Endangered Species (CITES).
But CITES has said that it regards Beijing's giving pandas to Taiwan as China's internal affair and does not want to be involved in it.
The Taipei Zoo said it is ready to receive the pandas from China.
In recent years, Taipei Zoo has sent personnel to Washington, Tokyo and Beijing to learn how to care for pandas, spokesman Chao Ming-chieh (
"We are building a panda hall which can open next spring. Among the bamboo types pandas eat, several types of them grow in Taiwan," he said.
CREDIT-GRABBER: China said its coast guard rescued the crew of a fishing vessel that caught fire, who were actually rescued by a nearby Taiwanese boat and the CGA Maritime search and rescue operations do not have borders, and China should not use a shipwreck to infringe upon Taiwanese sovereignty, the Coast Guard Administration (CGA) said yesterday. The coast guard made the statement in response to the China Coast Guard (CCG) saying it saved a Taiwanese fishing boat. The Chuan Yu No. 6 (全漁6號), a fishing vessel registered in Keelung, on Thursday caught fire and sank in waters northeast of Diaoyutai Islands (釣魚台). The vessel left Keelung’s Badouzih Fishing Harbor (八斗子漁港) at 3:35pm on Sunday last week, with seven people on board — a 62-year-old Taiwanese captain surnamed Chang (張) and six
RISKY BUSINESS: The ‘incentives’ include initiatives that get suspended for no reason, creating uncertainty and resulting in considerable losses for Taiwanese, the MAC said China’s “incentives” failed to sway sentiment in Taiwan, as willingness to work in China hit a record low of 1.6 percent, a Ministry of Labor survey showed. The Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics (DGBAS) also reported that the number of Taiwanese workers in China has nearly halved from a peak of 430,000 in 2012 to an estimated 231,000 in 2024. That marked a new low in the proportion of Taiwanese going abroad to work. The ministry’s annual survey on “Labor Life and Employment Status” includes questions respondents’ willingness to seek employment overseas. Willingness to work in China has steadily declined from
The number of pet cats in Taiwan surpassed that of pet dogs for the first time last year, reaching 1,742,033, a 32.8 percent increase from 2023, the Ministry of Agriculture said yesterday, citing a survey. By contrast, the number of pet dogs declined slightly by 1.2 percent over the same period to 1,462,528, the ministry said. Despite the shift, households with dogs still slightly outnumber those with cats by 1.2 percent. However, while the number of households with multiple dogs has remained relatively stable, households keeping more than two cats have increased, contributing to the overall rise in the feline population. The trend
The Legislative Yuan’s Finance Committee yesterday approved proposed amendments to the Amusement Tax Act (娛樂稅法) that would abolish taxes on films, cultural activities and competitive sporting events, retaining the fee only for dance halls and golf courses. The proposed changes would set the maximum tax rate for dance halls and golf courses at 50 and 20 percent respectively, with local governments authorized to suspend the levies. Article 2 of the act says that “amusement tax shall be levied on tickets sold or fees charged by amusement places, facilities or activities” in six categories: “Cinema; professional singing, story-telling, dancing, circus, magic show, acrobatics
RSS