Thirty-nine dogs have died in Chiayi County since Monday, allegedly due to heat exhaustion, after 70 dogs and a cat were loaded into a vehicle designed to carry just 20 animals, leading to the head of a local animal agency and other personnel being demoted.
A Chiayi Livestock Disease Control Center veterinarian transported the animals to a local private shelter on Monday, but 26 dogs — 13 adults and 13 puppies — were dead on arrival at the shelter, despite resuscitation efforts.
The death toll rose to 39 yesterday, with the dead animals being cremated following a religious ceremony.
Originally kept at a public shelter and facing euthanasia, the animals were to be admitted to the private shelter.
Videos and photographs of veterinarians and shelter workers trying to resuscitate dogs that lay motionless at the shelter went viral on the Internet, sparking public outrage at the center’s apparent negligence.
“Today is the saddest day since the shelter’s establishment. A car carrying dogs to be euthanized arrived at the shelter, but a volunteer was shocked by what he saw when he opened the trunk: Cages in the car were overcrowded with dogs. Some were already dead and those still alive were dying,” Hsu Wen-liang (徐文良), a shelter worker and brother of the shelter’s owner, wrote on Facebook.
“The shelter only agreed to take in 15 adult dogs and several sick puppies, but the center sent 70 dogs and a cat without informing the shelter. Who gave the order?” Hsu wrote.
The center on Monday apologized over the incident, saying a glitch with the vehicle’s air conditioning and hot weather caused temperatures inside the vehicle to rise too high, resulting in the death of the animals.
However, Chiayi County Commissioner Helen Chang (張花冠) visited the center and inspected the vehicle. She found that the car’s air conditioning was functioning properly and therefore attributed the incident to the center’s crowding of animals into a small, poorly ventilated space, adding that the animals should have been transported separately instead of in a single trip.
Chang said the county government would establish a standard operating procedure for animal transportation to protect animal welfare, while center director Wong Yo-chu (翁有助) and the veterinarian driving the vehicle have been demoted.
Shelter owner Hsu Wen-hui (徐雯慧) said that, despite the demotions, problems would still exist if the center continues with its present method of operation, adding that allowing animal rights campaigners to be involved with the center and public shelters would improve operations.
SEE CAMBODIAN ON PAGE 6
ROLLER-COASTER RIDE: More than five earthquakes ranging from magnitude 4.4 to 5.5 on the Richter scale shook eastern Taiwan in rapid succession yesterday afternoon Back-to-back weather fronts are forecast to hit Taiwan this week, resulting in rain across the nation in the coming days, the Central Weather Administration said yesterday, as it also warned residents in mountainous regions to be wary of landslides and rockfalls. As the first front approached, sporadic rainfall began in central and northern parts of Taiwan yesterday, the agency said, adding that rain is forecast to intensify in those regions today, while brief showers would also affect other parts of the nation. A second weather system is forecast to arrive on Thursday, bringing additional rain to the whole nation until Sunday, it
RETHINK? The defense ministry and Navy Command Headquarters could take over the indigenous submarine project and change its production timeline, a source said Admiral Huang Shu-kuang’s (黃曙光) resignation as head of the Indigenous Submarine Program and as a member of the National Security Council could affect the production of submarines, a source said yesterday. Huang in a statement last night said he had decided to resign due to national security concerns while expressing the hope that it would put a stop to political wrangling that only undermines the advancement of the nation’s defense capabilities. Taiwan People’s Party Legislator Vivian Huang (黃珊珊) yesterday said that the admiral, her older brother, felt it was time for him to step down and that he had completed what he
CONDITIONAL: The PRC imposes secret requirements that the funding it provides cannot be spent in states with diplomatic relations with Taiwan, Emma Reilly said China has been bribing UN officials to obtain “special benefits” and to block funding from countries that have diplomatic ties with Taiwan, a former UN employee told the British House of Commons on Tuesday. At a House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee hearing into “international relations within the multilateral system,” former Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) employee Emma Reilly said in a written statement that “Beijing paid bribes to the two successive Presidents of the [UN] General Assembly” during the two-year negotiation of the Sustainable Development Goals. Another way China exercises influence within the UN Secretariat is
CHINA REACTS: The patrol and reconnaissance plane ‘transited the Taiwan Strait in international airspace,’ the 7th Fleet said, while Taipei said it saw nothing unusual The US 7th Fleet yesterday said that a US Navy P-8A Poseidon flew through the Taiwan Strait, a day after US and Chinese defense heads held their first talks since November 2022 in an effort to reduce regional tensions. The patrol and reconnaissance plane “transited the Taiwan Strait in international airspace,” the 7th Fleet said in a news release. “By operating within the Taiwan Strait in accordance with international law, the United States upholds the navigational rights and freedoms of all nations.” In a separate statement, the Ministry of National Defense said that it monitored nearby waters and airspace as the aircraft