Animal abusers may face criminal punishment for serious abuse in the future, the Council of Agriculture (COA) said yesterday.
According to the council's proposed amendment to the Animal Protection Act (
Wang Chung-shu (
INTERNET POSTING
Wang said the move came in response to a recent cat abuse case, in which a man who holds a master's degree abused a kitten and posted pictures of the abuse on Web sites in China.
The man's actions have drawn widespread public condemnation and prompted animal activists to plea for criminal penalties for animal abusers.
Wang said that those involved in mild animal abuse would face a penalty of up to NT$50,000, the same punishment mandated under the current regulation.
He added that the proposal also contained an emergency protection article for animals, allowing law enforcement officers to rescue abused animals under emergency circumstances without first obtaining a warrant.
He said the proposal was still under discussion, but senior officials at the council would like to send the proposal to the legislature as soon as possible.
ACTIVIST RESPONDS
Responding to the proposal, Chen Yu-min (陳玉敏), spokeswoman for the Environment and Animal Society of Taiwan, an animal rights group, said that public discussions should be held to reach a concensus on the severity of the punishments.
The society believes that a better way to prevent animal abuse would be to add a law to the Criminal Code banning all abuse, she said, adding that studies from other countries showed that 80 percent of animal abusers often abused children and women as well.
She said the society would work with other civic groups and legislators to draft a "more serious amendment" to address more animal protection issues.
The Animal Protection Act was enacted in 1998. It is part of the country's administrative regulations, so the punishment for animal abusers is milder than that in other countries, according to the council.
Former Czech Republic-based Taiwanese researcher Cheng Yu-chin (鄭宇欽) has been sentenced to seven years in prison on espionage-related charges, China’s Ministry of State Security announced yesterday. China said Cheng was a spy for Taiwan who “masqueraded as a professor” and that he was previously an assistant to former Cabinet secretary-general Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰). President-elect William Lai (賴清德) on Wednesday last week announced Cho would be his premier when Lai is inaugurated next month. Today is China’s “National Security Education Day.” The Chinese ministry yesterday released a video online showing arrests over the past 10 years of people alleged to be
THE HAWAII FACTOR: While a 1965 opinion said an attack on Hawaii would not trigger Article 5, the text of the treaty suggests the state is covered, the report says NATO could be drawn into a conflict in the Taiwan Strait if Chinese forces attacked the US mainland or Hawaii, a NATO Defense College report published on Monday says. The report, written by James Lee, an assistant research fellow at Academia Sinica’s Institute of European and American Studies, states that under certain conditions a Taiwan contingency could trigger Article 5 of NATO, under which an attack against any member of the alliance is considered an attack against all members, necessitating a response. Article 6 of the North Atlantic Treaty specifies that an armed attack in the territory of any member in Europe,
LIKE FAMILY: People now treat dogs and cats as family members. They receive the same medical treatments and tests as humans do, a veterinary association official said The number of pet dogs and cats in Taiwan has officially outnumbered the number of human newborns last year, data from the Ministry of Agriculture’s pet registration information system showed. As of last year, Taiwan had 94,544 registered pet dogs and 137,652 pet cats, the data showed. By contrast, 135,571 babies were born last year. Demand for medical care for pet animals has also risen. As of Feb. 29, there were 5,773 veterinarians in Taiwan, 3,993 of whom were for pet animals, statistics from the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Agency showed. In 2022, the nation had 3,077 pediatricians. As of last
XINJIANG: Officials are conducting a report into amending an existing law or to enact a special law to prohibit goods using forced labor Taiwan is mulling an amendment prohibiting the importation of goods using forced labor, similar to the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act (UFLPA) passed by the US Congress in 2021 that imposed limits on goods produced using forced labor in China’s Xinjiang region. A government official who wished to remain anonymous said yesterday that as the US customs law explicitly prohibits the importation of goods made using forced labor, in 2021 it passed the specialized UFLPA to limit the importation of cotton and other goods from China’s Xinjiang Uyghur region. Taiwan does not have the legal basis to prohibit the importation of goods