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Ho-hum response to cat-killing makes German pair see red

Two German diplomats are up in arms over the Shilin police department's refusal to take the killing of their cat seriously, which has forced them to hunt the culprit themselves, a newspaper report said yesterday.

Detlef Boldt, the director-general of the German Institute Taipei, and his wife discovered in June that their three-month-old cat was missing, the Chinese-language Apple Daily reported.

The next day they discovered their cat's body, with its front legs chopped off, near their home in Tianmu, the Apple Daily said.

They reported the case to the Shilin police, but the police told them they would not pursue the cat killing since the victim was only a feline and not a child.

They added that even if they found the person who did it, the most they could do would be to fine him or her NT$50,000 under Taiwan's Animal Protection Act (動物保護法), the daily said.

After Shilin police director Chou Wen-ko (周文科) suggested that the cat was probably attacked by a dog or caught underneath a lawn mower, the owners took the carcass to a vet, who confirmed that the legs were undoubtedly cut off with a knife, the paper reported.

The Apple Daily quoted Chou insisting that "everything was handled according to criminal procedure."

Hu Tsung-chen (胡崇禎) of the Shilin Foreign Affairs Police told the paper that "even though it's only a cat, we still take it very seriously" and that "there might have been some communication error during the translation."

The Boldts said that they have spent more than 100 hours checking surveillance tapes from cameras around their property but haven't discovered anything unusual, the paper said. However, the report said, they are not buying the police's explanation that it was probably killed by a dog.

In the past, gangsters have been hired to poison, torture and kill pets in order to terrorize their owners who are involved in business or personal disputes.

But TV reports said the Boldts said they were not aware that they had any enemies in Taiwan.
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