An animal advocacy group yesterday called for a ban on steel snares, which they said hurt stray dogs, while an expert said that a ban could result in farmers using more inhumane alternatives such as poison.
Taiwan Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals executive director Connie Chiang (姜怡如) said the group has found that monkeys and stray dogs were caught in steel snares, resulting in broken limbs or starvation.
Chiang cited a report by the Yilan County Animal and Plant Disease Control Center for the society’s findings.
Photo: Chien Jung-fong, Taipei Times
Control center section chief Liu Pi-yang (劉必揚) said an inspection in 2015 found about 80 steel snares in the Paolun community (匏崙) in Jiaoxi Township (礁溪), adding that five stray dogs have been injured by snares since then.
“It is difficult to identify who is setting up the snares,” he said.
The society’s legal specialist, Chou Jing-fan (周敬凡), called for an official ban on the steel snares.
Article 19 of the Wildlife Conservation Act (野生動物保育法) prohibits “the use of traps, snares or other hunting equipment” to capture animals, Chou said, adding that the act should be amended to explicitly ban steel snares.
“Any cruel device [for capturing animals] should be banned,” he added.
Protecting animals is everyone’s obligation, Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Chen Man-li (陳曼麗) said, adding that she supports the proposed ban.
“This has nothing to do with the conflict between Aborigines and Han people,” she added.
However, Savungaz Valincinan, a member of the Indigenous Youth Front, said advocates of the ban were criminalizing Aborigines.
She said that animal rights advocates should not frame the issue around “prohibition” and Aborigines’ accountability.
Many farmers, not only Aborigines, use snares to capture intruding animals, said Kurtis Jai-Chyi Pei (裴家騏), professor at National Dong Hwa University’s College of Environmental Studies.
Banning steel snares might be counterproductive because farmers would find alternatives like using poisons, he said, adding that stray animals and leopard cats are often injured by such methods.
People who want to capture animals should use more humanitarian means that are precise and cause no suffering to animals, he said.
“Traps are already banned, but many people are still using them,” he said. “The key lies with improving enforcement.”
US climber Alex Honnold is to attempt to scale Taipei 101 without a rope and harness in a live Netflix special on Jan. 24, the streaming platform announced on Wednesday. Accounting for the time difference, the two-hour broadcast of Honnold’s climb, called Skyscraper Live, is to air on Jan. 23 in the US, Netflix said in a statement. Honnold, 40, was the first person ever to free solo climb the 900m El Capitan rock formation in Yosemite National Park — a feat that was recorded and later made into the 2018 documentary film Free Solo. Netflix previewed Skyscraper Live in October, after videos
NUMBERS IMBALANCE: More than 4 million Taiwanese have visited China this year, while only about half a million Chinese have visited here Beijing has yet to respond to Taiwan’s requests for negotiation over matters related to the recovery of cross-strait tourism, the Tourism Administration said yesterday. Taiwan’s tourism authority issued the statement after Chinese-language daily the China Times reported yesterday that the government’s policy of banning group tours to China does not stop Taiwanese from visiting the country. As of October, more than 4.2 million had traveled to China this year, exceeding last year. Beijing estimated the number of Taiwanese tourists in China could reach 4.5 million this year. By contrast, only 500,000 Chinese tourists are expected in Taiwan, the report said. The report
Temperatures are forecast to drop steadily as a continental cold air mass moves across Taiwan, with some areas also likely to see heavy rainfall, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. From today through early tomorrow, a cold air mass would keep temperatures low across central and northern Taiwan, and the eastern half of Taiwan proper, with isolated brief showers forecast along Keelung’s north coast, Taipei and New Taipei City’s mountainous areas and eastern Taiwan, it said. Lows of 11°C to 15°C are forecast in central and northern Taiwan, Yilan County, and the outlying Kinmen and Lienchiang (Matsu) counties, and 14°C to 17°C
STEERING FAILURE: The first boat of its class is experiencing teething issues as it readies for acceptance by the navy, according to a recent story about rudder failure The Hai Kun (海鯤), the nation’s first locally built submarine, allegedly suffered a total failure of stern hydraulic systems during the second round of sea acceptance trials on June 26, and sailors were forced to manually operate the X-rudder to turn the submarine and return to port, news Web site Mirror Daily reported yesterday. The report said that tugboats following the Hai Kun assisted the submarine in avoiding collisions with other ships due to the X-rudder malfunctioning. At the time of the report, the submarine had completed its trials and was scheduled to begin diving and surfacing tests in shallow areas. The X-rudder,
RSS