Organizers of an animal circus show initially scheduled to begin in Taipei on Tuesday were verbally lambasted by a city councilor yesterday for failing to meet safety standards.
The circus, titled "2001 Las Vegas Circus Carnival," was to be held in the plaza near the Taipei train station's west gate. The organizers have already built a large tent for 1,800 people in the plaza.
Taipei City Councilor Chen Yu-mei (
PHOTO: LU CHUN-WEI, TAIPEI TIMES
Chen said the organizers had built the tent without applying for a permit from the city's Division of Building Standards and have not applied for a safety inspection by the city's fire department, Chen said. In addition, the organizers have no traffic management plan for the show, Chen said.
The city's Division of Building Standards has already slapped a NT$150,000 fine on the organizers for failing to abide by safety procedures.
The organizers have postponed the show until Jan. 20 because of the problems and because they had not yet managed to import the circus animals into Taiwan.
The circus will feature monkeys, horses, black bears and tigers, according to the circus' brochure.
Shen Peng (
Shen also stressed that not one ticket for the circus has been sold.
Kao Chen-yuan (
In related news, city councilor Huang Shan-shan (
Lin Hsiu-cheng (林修正), a quarantine officer from the city government, defended the plan to kill the dogs before Jan. 20, saying that the city pound had stopped catching strays on Jan. 8, and therefore the time will be legally up on Jan. 20 to allow the dogs to be put to death.
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