Under increasing pressure from animal rights activists, diverse issues pertaining to stray dogs, including the abolition of euthanasia, will be discussed with social groups next week, the Council of Agriculture announced yesterday.
More than 20 animal-rights conservation groups have been invited to attend a public discussion on Jan. 15, organized by the council. Officials said that bringing up issues pertaining to animal protection management are welcome.
In response to the invitation, many social groups, including the Life Conservation Association, reportedly would meet to discuss the controversial issue of abolishing euthanasia.
Animal rights conservationists plan to suggest the council replace euthanasia with sterilization and urge the council to neuter at least 40,000 stray dogs annually.
In Taiwan, once a stray dog has been captured by staff from a public shelter and is not adopted within a week, it will be put down.
Subsidies were given to local governments to purchase concentrated sodium pentobarbital and to pay for veterinarians assisting in administering euthanasia to stray dogs. Meanwhile, local governments are urged not to use drowning, electrocution and other inhumane methods to dispose of stray dogs.
However, council officials said euthanasia would not be abolished before policies have been revised.
"We follow the lead of many other countries. Tackling stray-dog problems is a positive step," said Sheu Kuei-son (
Sheu said that euthanasia was inevitable because shelters and facilities for stray dogs are limited.
Chen Yu-min (
According to Chen, deteriorating problems pertaining to stray dogs can be mainly attributed to some pet owners and dog breeders, who irresponsibly abandon dogs.
"If policies cannot be adjusted to tackle the root causes, solving existing problems could be very challenging," Chen said.
Secret dog slaughterhouses are sometimes raided by the police. On Wednesday, 17 dogs were found by the police at a secret slaughtering house in Yenchao, Kaohsiung County. At the site, tools to kill dogs, facilities to remove the animals' hair and refrigerators were found.
Ko Sun-yu (柯尚余), director of the county's Animal Disease Control Center, said yesterday that some owners of restaurants selling "tonic food" in southern Taiwan could be linked to secret dog-slaughtering houses.
The 17 dogs would be put down if they are not adopted.
In Kaohsiung County, about 3,000 stray dogs are captured and sent to public shelters annually. All are put down except an average of 500 dogs that are adopted annually.
For a long time, animal rights activists have said that all counties in Taiwan have shops selling dog meat.
In November last year, Care for Animals and Protect the Earth Organization released a survey claiming that a third of all stray dogs in public shelters are sold to restaurants and that the unit price for dogs varies from NT$300 to NT$3,000.
Council officials however said there is no evidence to corroborate these accusations. Council officials stressed that the government deals with all animal abuse cases reported with evidence, and measures have been taken to rescue strays and reintroduce them to domestic life.
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