A legislative committee yesterday took the first step toward tightening protection for animals by approving amendments making animal abuse a crime punishable by jail time.
The legislature's Economics and Energy Committee unanimously approved amendments to the Animal Protection Law (
The amendments stipulate that any person convicted of harassing, abusing, harming or abandoning an animal, leading to injuries or death, may be punished by up to a year in prison.
Under the current law, animal abuse is punishable by fines only.
"[The amendments] represent significant progress for animal protection in Taiwan," Hsiao said.
However, this is only the first step in creating an animal-friendly society, Hsiao said.
"For example, I'd also like to see legislation governing pet trading and breeding," Hsiao said.
She added that she was considering an amendment to the Trademark Act (
"A lot of consumers think they're buying faux fur, but they're actually buying real animal fur," Hsiao said.
"I think consumers have the right to know the origin of the fur products they're buying," Hsiao said.
Meanwhile, the committee also approved a non-binding resolution asking the Council of Agriculture (COA) to draft procedures to ensure more humane animal- slaughtering procedures.
"Although humane animal-slaughtering practices are already required under the law, the COA has yet to set a standard procedure for slaughterhouses to follow," Hsiao said.
A group of Taiwanese-American and Tibetan-American students at Harvard University on Saturday disrupted Chinese Ambassador to the US Xie Feng’s (謝鋒) speech at the school, accusing him of being responsible for numerous human rights violations. Four students — two Taiwanese Americans and two from Tibet — held up banners inside a conference hall where Xie was delivering a speech at the opening ceremony of the Harvard Kennedy School China Conference 2024. In a video clip provided by the Coalition of Students Resisting the CCP (Chinese Communist Party), Taiwanese-American Cosette Wu (吳亭樺) and Tibetan-American Tsering Yangchen are seen holding banners that together read:
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Heat advisories were in effect for nine administrative regions yesterday afternoon as warm southwesterly winds pushed temperatures above 38°C in parts of southern Taiwan, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. As of 3:30pm yesterday, Tainan’s Yujing District (玉井) had recorded the day’s highest temperature of 39.7°C, though the measurement will not be included in Taiwan’s official heat records since Yujing is an automatic rather than manually operated weather station, the CWA said. Highs recorded in other areas were 38.7°C in Kaohsiung’s Neimen District (內門), 38.2°C in Chiayi City and 38.1°C in Pingtung’s Sandimen Township (三地門), CWA data showed. The spell of scorching