Two beef wholesalers that were found to have pumped water into cattle carcasses to increase the weight of the beef are to face a fine of NT$150,000 each, while whether they made other illegal profits is to be further investigated by prosecutors, the Council of Agriculture said yesterday.
The council’s Bureau of Animal and Plant Health Inspection and Quarantine said that after talking on Friday with the owners of the Fubo Slaughterhouse — where the illegal practice was witnessed — and beef wholesalers Shang Hao (上豪) and Shun Fa (順發) — who allegedly performed the water pumping — the bureau decided to fine the two companies for one case each, in line with the Animal Industry Act (畜牧法).
The Chinese-language Apple Daily reported that its reporters on four occasions witnessed workers allegedly pumping water into carcasses, but the bureau said it can only confirm two clear cases from the video filmed by the paper.
Measures will be enforced to ensure the nation’s meat safety, including increased inspections and surveillance camera monitoring, the bureau said, having officials make inspections without warning, enhancing training for inspectors, asking slaughterhouses to install surveillance cameras, with laws to enforce heavier punishments.
According to Environment and Animal Society of Taiwan director Chen Yu-ming (陳玉敏), the council spent about NT$380 million on meat inspections each year, including recruiting 580 inspectors and surveillance camera maintenance in slaughterhouses since 2012.
A further NT$65 million was spent subsidizing the nation’s beef industry between 2007 and 2011, and 283 inspections have been made since illegal practices at Fubo Slaughterhouse were reported two years ago. Yet the group said companies and inspectors still do not value animal welfare and meat safety.
Chen questioned whether the monitoring system malfunctioned, because it “could not see” the illegal practices, with the government instead relying on civic groups or the media to uncover the incidents.
GOOD DIPLOMACY: The KMT has maintained close contact with representative offices in Taiwan and had extended an invitation to Russia as well, the KMT said The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) would “appropriately handle” the fallout from an invitation it had extended to Russia’s representative to Taipei to attend its international banquet last month, KMT Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫) said yesterday. US and EU representatives in Taiwan boycotted the event, and only later agreed to attend after the KMT rescinded its invitation to the Russian representative. The KMT has maintained long-term close contact with all representative offices and embassies in Taiwan, and had extended the invitation as a practice of good diplomacy, Chu said. “Some EU countries have expressed their opinions of Russia, and the KMT respects that,” he
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Advocates of the rights of motorcycle and scooter riders yesterday protested in front of the Ministry of Transportation and Communications in Taipei, making three demands. They were joined by 30 passenger vehicles, which surrounded the ministry to make three demands related to traffic regulations — that motorcycles and scooters above 250cc be allowed on highways, that all motorcycles and scooters be allowed on inside lanes, and that driver and rider training programs be reformed. The ministry said that it has no plans to allow motorcycles on national highways for the time being, and said that motorcycles would be allowed on the inner