An amendment to the Animal Protection Act (動物保護法) should be put on the legislative agenda to save the lives of countless stray animals across the country, rights activist Huang Tai-shan (黃泰山) said, during a “kneeling protest” he staged yesterday.
“If this seriously flawed Animal Protection Act continues to be carried out, it will pose a threat to the precious lives of innumerable stray animals. I will keep kneeling until an amendment to the law is put on the legislative agenda,” Huang said while on his knees in front of the legislature in Taipei.
Since the implementation of the act in 1998, the predicaments of stray animals have steadily gone from bad to worse, Huang said.
Of the 1.23 million stray dogs captured and sent to animal shelters nationwide between 2001 and last year, 1.04 million did not make it out alive, Huang said, adding that animal rights were often disregarded by the public.
“The government’s poor management on the issue has resulted in a proliferation of unconscionable breeders and breeding farms across the country, while the Council of Agriculture, which is the competent authority for the matter, has failed to propose any amendments to make up for the defects in the law,” Huang said.
Huang said animal welfare advocates had attempted to submit their own versions of amendments in the past, but they were all turned down.
A council official even made it clear that the government would oppose any amendments drafted by the public, Huang said, expressing indignation at council’s handling of the matter.
“The council has failed to propose a better version of the amendment, while continuing to speak against any drafts submitted by the public. Such moves to elude responsibility and block reform are absolutely detestable,” Huang said.
Huang also called on cross-party legislators to show sympathy for stray animals by including an amendment on the legislative agenda as soon as possible.
He said he would continue kneeling from 10am through 4pm every day until his request is granted.
Translated by Stacy Hsu, staff writer
The Taipei Department of Health yesterday said it has launched a probe into a restaurant at Far Eastern Sogo Xinyi A13 Department Store after a customer died of suspected food poisoning. A preliminary investigation on Sunday found missing employee health status reports and unsanitary kitchen utensils at Polam Kopitiam (寶林茶室) in the department store’s basement food court, the department said. No direct relationship between the food poisoning death and the restaurant was established, as no food from the day of the incident was available for testing and no other customers had reported health complaints, it said, adding that the investigation is ongoing. Later
REVENGE TRAVEL: A surge in ticket prices should ease this year, but inflation would likely keep tickets at a higher price than before the pandemic Scoot is to offer six additional flights between Singapore and Northeast Asia, with all routes transiting Taipei from April 1, as the budget airline continues to resume operations that were paused during the COVID-19 pandemic, a Scoot official said on Thursday. Vice president of sales Lee Yong Sin (李榮新) said at a gathering with reporters in Taipei that the number of flights from Singapore to Japan and South Korea with a stop in Taiwan would increase from 15 to 21 each week. That change means the number of the Singapore-Taiwan-Tokyo flights per week would increase from seven to 12, while Singapore-Taiwan-Seoul
POOR PREPARATION: Cultures can form on food that is out of refrigeration for too long and cooking does not reliably neutralize their toxins, an epidemiologist said Medical professionals yesterday said that suspected food poisoning deaths revolving around a restaurant at Far Eastern Department Store Xinyi A13 Store in Taipei could have been caused by one of several types of bacterium. Ho Mei-shang (何美鄉), an epidemiologist at Academia Sinica’s Institute of Biomedical Sciences, wrote on Facebook that the death of a 39-year-old customer of the restaurant suggests the toxin involved was either “highly potent or present in massive large quantities.” People who ate at the restaurant showed symptoms within hours of consuming the food, suggesting that the poisoning resulted from contamination by a toxin and not infection of the
BAD NEIGHBORS: China took fourth place among countries spreading disinformation, with Hong Kong being used as a hub to spread propaganda, a V-Dem study found Taiwan has been rated as the country most affected by disinformation for the 11th consecutive year in a study by the global research project Varieties of Democracy (V-Dem). The nation continues to be a target of disinformation originating from China, and Hong Kong is increasingly being used as a base from which to disseminate that disinformation, the report said. After Taiwan, Latvia and Palestine ranked second and third respectively, while Nicaragua, North Korea, Venezuela and China, in that order, were the countries that spread the most disinformation, the report said. Each country listed in the report was given a score,