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Taipei releases pet data, urges action

Dog and cat owners in Taipei City spend more than NT$1,300 every month on their pets, bringing an annual NT$440 million (US$13 million) in business for the city, the Taipei City Government said yesterday.

The number of pet owners in Taipei City increased from 22.5 percent in 2001 to 28.7 percent this year, and the number of pets abandoned was much less compared with the number in other cities and counties, statistics from Taipei Municipal Institute for Animal Health showed.

“The number of dogs and cats abandoned in many cities and counties is increasing recently because of the slow economy, but we are glad to learn that there’s no such trend in Taipei City,” Yen I-feng (嚴一峰), director of the institute, said yesterday at Taipei City Hall.

Meanwhile, the number of stray dogs fell to 3,460 from 6,542 in 2005, and the number of stray cats fell 9,153 from 14,499 in 2005, because of the city government’s efforts to reduce the number of stray animals, Yen said.

The city government has been encouraging dog and cat owners to have their pets implanted with identity chips since 1999, and pet owners who fail to follow the regulations or abandon their pets will be fined between NT$3,000 and NT$15,000 in accordance with the Animal Protection Law (動物保護法).

Yen said the city government was one of the local governments that enforced the regulations strictly, and so the number of stray animals, mainly dogs and cats, had been greatly reduced.

A total of 163,704 dogs and cats have been implanted with ID chips over the last 10 years. Yen said the institute would start reviewing the data by the end of this year in order to update the database.

To find vets registered with the city government to implant the chips, visit the Web site www.tmiah.tcg.gov.tw or call 02-8789-1739.
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