Animal protection groups are still skeptical about the Council of Agriculture’s (COA) proposed zero-euthanasia policy — slated for implementation in 2018 — despite Hualien County reporting more than 80 percent adoption rates from shelters for abandoned pets last year.
Based on a survey conducted by the Hualien County Animal and Plant Disease Control Center last year, most owners abandoned pets for biting people (30 percent), chasing vehicles (28 percent) or moving house (12 percent).
Another main reason for giving pets away to shelters was noisiness, the center said.
The center found that students and unmarried couples are the most likely to abandon pets, with students often giving up pets once they graduate or move to new accommodation.
Despite its relatively high adoption rates, the county said it still had to put down 17 percent of the animals it received at shelters, with illness and failure to identify animals the main reasons.
Most animals are abandoned without justification and the government should implement heavy fines on owners who dump their pets at shelters, instead of encouraging them to “legally” abandon their pets.
The enactment of the zero-euthanasia policy might herald a wave of pet abandonments, animal advocates said.
The terms of the proposal — requiring owners to sign a document and pay shelters NT$2,400 in handling fees — are, in effect encouraging the public to abandon their pets, advocates said.
However, center director Huang Shih-yi (黃詩伊) said that the policy did not absolve pet owners of their responsibilities.
Owners giving up pets would be fined heavily if it is discovered that they have not neutered their pets as mandated by the Animal Protection Act (動物保護法), Huang said, adding that the center would also step up patrols aimed at preventing the abandonment of pets.
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