Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Apollo Chen (陳學聖) yesterday urged the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) to take better care of the horses it has used to produce antivenom for snakebites.
Earlier this month, the agency said that three horses that had been used to produce antivenom for more than a decade were being retired and sent to Cingjing Farm (清境農場) in Nantou County to live out the rest of their years.
The three government-owned horses had helped the agency produce nearly 4,500 doses of antivenom annually.
However, Chen said he had heard the horses were sold as work horses and sent to a horse farm in Tainan.
Seven other horses given to the Civil Affairs Office of what was then Sintu (新屋) in Taoyuan County in 2008 are missing, although one reportedly died in a fire at Sintu Horse Farm in 2010, he said.
The horses contributed so many years to helping save human lives, they should be given a better retirement, the way police dogs are, the lawmaker said.
“If using horses to produce antivenom is a necessary evil, then at least treat the horses kindly after they are retired,” Chen said.
The horses could be used in educational programs by allowing the public to see the damage done to their bodies from injections and blood drawing, which would help teach a respect for life, he said.
CDC Vaccine Center Director Chiang Cheng-jung (江正榮) said the horses usually live for 10 to 15 years after retirement, so the agency has sold or donated several since 2007 for tourism, educational or recreational purposes, but they must be treated according to the Animal Protection Act (動物保護法).
The three horses retired this month were sent to a horse farm in Tainan, which has said it would put them on display or use them for recreational activities after they training, Chiang said.
Chiang admitted that the CDC might have neglected to keep track of its retired horses, which might have been resold or relocated.
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