Dozens of animal rights activists coordinated through the Internet launched the Animal Protection Policy Watch Alliance yesterday, calling on mayoral and councilor candidates taking part in next month’s special municipality elections to promise better treatment of animals.
“It’s shocking to know that around 100,000 stray animals — mostly cats and dogs — are subject to mercy killings each year,” co-founder of the alliance Ho Tsung-hsun (何宗勳) said. “The current Animal Protection Act (動物保護法) offers no protection at all to the right to survival of animals — we hope that future special municipality mayors will reduce the number of animals killed, and develop animal protection policies that are based on the ideas of animal rights.”
Another co-founder of the -alliance, Huang Tai-shan (黃泰山) said that the alliance plans to invite all candidates participating in the elections to sign letters of undertaking to offer more protection to animals once they are elected.
PHOTO: CNA
“At the moment, we would ask them to create animal protection agencies in their respective cities and a police force specially focused on animal protection,” Huang said.
He said that the alliance will publish a list of animal-friendly candidates based on candidates’ responses to their demands before polling day on Nov. 27, and urge animal lovers to form a voting bloc to support animal-friendly candidates.
“We will continue to monitor the animal protection policies of local and central governments after this coming election,” Huang said.
Kenting National Park service technician Yang Jien-fon (楊政峰) won a silver award in World Grand Prix Photography Awards Spring Season for his photograph of two male rat snakes intertwined in combat. Yang’s colleagues at Kenting National Park said he is a master of nature photography who has been held back by his job in civil service. The awards accept entries in all four seasons across six categories: architectural and urban photography, black-and-white and fine art photography, commercial and fashion photography, documentary and people photography, nature and experimental photography, and mobile photography. Awards are ranked according to scores and divided into platinum, gold and
More than half of the bamboo vipers captured in Tainan in the past few years were found in the city’s Sinhua District (新化), while other districts had smaller catches or none at all. Every year, Tainan captures about 6,000 snakes which have made their way into people’s homes. Of the six major venomous snakes in Taiwan, the cobra, the many-banded krait, the brown-spotted pit viper and the bamboo viper are the most frequently captured. The high concentration of bamboo vipers captured in Sinhua District is puzzling. Tainan Agriculture Bureau Forestry and Nature Conservation Division head Chu Chien-ming (朱健明) earlier this week said that the
BREACH OF CONTRACT: The bus operators would seek compensation and have demanded that the manufacturer replace the chips with ones that meet regulations Two bus operators found to be using buses with China-made chips are to demand that the original manufacturers replace the systems and provide compensation for breach of contract, the Veterans Affairs Council said yesterday. Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Michelle Lin (林楚茵) yesterday said that Da Nan Bus Co and Shin-Shin Bus Co Ltd have fielded a total of 82 buses that are using Chinese chips. The bus models were made by Tron-E, while the systems provider was CYE Electronics, Lin said. Lin alleged that the buses were using chips manufactured by Huawei subsidiary HiSilicon Co, which presents a national security risk if the
The National Immigration Agency has banned two Chinese from returning to Taiwan, after they published social media content it described as disrespectful to national sovereignty. The agency imposed a two-month ban on a Chinese man surnamed Liang (梁) and a permanent ban on a woman surnamed Yang (楊), an influencer with 23 million followers, in October last year and last week respectively. Minister of the Interior Liu Shyh-fang (劉世芳) yesterday said on the sidelines of a legislative meeting that Chinese visitors to Taiwan are required to comply with the rules and regulations governing their entry permits. The government has handled the ban and
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