The Taipei Zoo on Friday accused rapper Qmone (Q毛萬) and two other men of breaking into the zoo after hours and frightening the animals with a flashlight.
The Taipei Police Department’s Wenshan First Precinct is to investigate the case by questioning Qmone, whose real name is Chen Po-jui (陳柏瑞), and reviewing a video of the alleged incident uploaded to YouTube in February.
The zoo said that Qmone and his two friends prepared gloves, flashlights and food for their midnight excursion.
The rapper said it was “the right thing to do at the wrong time.”
The trio allegedly wandered around looking for giraffes and lions and repeatedly disturbed animals by shining flashlights into the pens, zoo police said.
Although the video was uploaded this year, Qmone said it happened in February last year.
Zoo spokesperson Tsao Hsien-shao (曹先紹) accused the intruders of breaking and entering on government property, an offense prosecutable under the Criminal Code, and said that shining flashlights directly in animals’ faces violates the Wildlife Conservation Act (野生動物保育法).
The three are also accused of urinating outside the zoo — a breach of the city’s Department of Environmental Protection and Department of Health regulations, Tsao said.
The zoo saved the video and provided a copy to police, Tsao added.
Qmone is a Chinese Culture University student, netizens said on social media.
Tsao urged the university to make a statement condemning his actions, saying this sort of behavior should not be encouraged.
In Facebook comments on Friday, Qmone asked netizens why caging animals is legal, but his excursion is not.
Netizens said that under the Animal Protection Act, keeping animals in cages “was indeed legal.”
Qmone deleted his comments by Friday evening.
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