On World Animal Day yesterday, Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) presidential candidate Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) said that if the DPP returns to power, it would allocate more resources for the protection of animals.
The DPP government would provide personnel and operational funds for the most urgent tasks to local governments that come up with comprehensive plans, Tsai said on Facebook.
Tsai, who owns two cats, said these tasks include: increasing animal protection personnel; forming a monitoring group; enforcing pet registration policies; educating pet owners to be responsible; and funding TNVR — trap/neuter/vaccinate/return — adoption programs.
Other urgent tasks include promoting life education, improving conditions at animal shelters, bolstering the supervision of breeding facilities and cracking down on illegal breeding, Tsai said.
Many pets live in harsh environments and face unclear futures, Tsai said.
Compared with some developed countries, Taiwan has yet to perform a number of animal protection tasks governed by the law, nor has it worked to improve animal welfare or establish animal rights, Tsai said.
An amendment to the Animal Protection Act (動物保護法) earlier this year that ended the practice of “12-night euthanasia” — where animals in shelters were put down after 12 days — came about a year too late, Tsai said, adding that a number of complementary measures to correct the source of the problem have not been implemented, allowing the problem of stray animals to continue unabated.
“The government must be determined to provide abundant resources to local governments, which are at the front line for implementation, but often suffer from an inadequate budget and a shortage of manpower,” Tsai said.
Tsai said that a nation’s animal protection policy is not only about solving the problem of stray animals, adding that the government should formulate “guidelines for the protection of animals.”
These guidelines should encourage the government to work with professionals to develop short, intermediate and long-term goals for animal conservation, to census endangered species and to improve the welfare of animals used for commercial, experimental and performance purposes, she added.
Only in a world where all living beings can peacefully coexist can a friendlier and more balanced living environment be created, Tsai said.
Former Czech Republic-based Taiwanese researcher Cheng Yu-chin (鄭宇欽) has been sentenced to seven years in prison on espionage-related charges, China’s Ministry of State Security announced yesterday. China said Cheng was a spy for Taiwan who “masqueraded as a professor” and that he was previously an assistant to former Cabinet secretary-general Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰). President-elect William Lai (賴清德) on Wednesday last week announced Cho would be his premier when Lai is inaugurated next month. Today is China’s “National Security Education Day.” The Chinese ministry yesterday released a video online showing arrests over the past 10 years of people alleged to be
THE HAWAII FACTOR: While a 1965 opinion said an attack on Hawaii would not trigger Article 5, the text of the treaty suggests the state is covered, the report says NATO could be drawn into a conflict in the Taiwan Strait if Chinese forces attacked the US mainland or Hawaii, a NATO Defense College report published on Monday says. The report, written by James Lee, an assistant research fellow at Academia Sinica’s Institute of European and American Studies, states that under certain conditions a Taiwan contingency could trigger Article 5 of NATO, under which an attack against any member of the alliance is considered an attack against all members, necessitating a response. Article 6 of the North Atlantic Treaty specifies that an armed attack in the territory of any member in Europe,
LIKE FAMILY: People now treat dogs and cats as family members. They receive the same medical treatments and tests as humans do, a veterinary association official said The number of pet dogs and cats in Taiwan has officially outnumbered the number of human newborns last year, data from the Ministry of Agriculture’s pet registration information system showed. As of last year, Taiwan had 94,544 registered pet dogs and 137,652 pet cats, the data showed. By contrast, 135,571 babies were born last year. Demand for medical care for pet animals has also risen. As of Feb. 29, there were 5,773 veterinarians in Taiwan, 3,993 of whom were for pet animals, statistics from the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Agency showed. In 2022, the nation had 3,077 pediatricians. As of last
XINJIANG: Officials are conducting a report into amending an existing law or to enact a special law to prohibit goods using forced labor Taiwan is mulling an amendment prohibiting the importation of goods using forced labor, similar to the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act (UFLPA) passed by the US Congress in 2021 that imposed limits on goods produced using forced labor in China’s Xinjiang region. A government official who wished to remain anonymous said yesterday that as the US customs law explicitly prohibits the importation of goods made using forced labor, in 2021 it passed the specialized UFLPA to limit the importation of cotton and other goods from China’s Xinjiang Uyghur region. Taiwan does not have the legal basis to prohibit the importation of goods