A Kaohsiung court yesterday found two Paiwan men not guilty of killing three protected animals using modified rifles on the grounds that hunting of wildlife is part of their traditional culture.
The Ciaotou District Court acquitted the two men from Pingtung County’s Sandimen Township (三地門), who were found with two dead Formosan muntjacs and one dead Formosan serow on Jan. 1 last year.
The two men, surnamed Lee (李) and Chiu (邱), were stopped on their way home from hunting by a group of police officers who were patrolling the mountains and found the three carcasses in their truck.
After the animals were examined and then seized for evidence, the two men were charged with violation of the Wildlife Conservation Act (野生動物保育法).
Prosecutors verified that the animals were two Formosan muntjacs and one Formosan serow — both of which are protected species.
Prosecutors said the Council of Agriculture has held public education programs and promoted campaigns to notify area residents about protected wildlife species, which cannot be hunted or killed without obtaining approval from local authorities.
Lee, 43 and Chiu, 36, denied they were engaged in illegal poaching.
They said they had only been following the Paiwan practice of hunting for wild animals in the mountains during the Magaji Vasa Festival (馬嘎績發沙) on Jan. 1.
Lee said he went hunting with the modified rifles at night and he shot at the animals when he saw their eyes shining in the dark.
“Since it was late at night in the mountains, we could not see if they were protected animals. We did not seek protected species,” Lee said.
A village elder who testified at the trial told judges that it was the community’s tradition to hunt wild animals — the bigger the better — during the festival.
The elder told the court that men returning from a successful hunt are treated as heroes, and that the village elder would then distribute the game meat among the village’s households.
The court acquitted the defendants in the first ruling, which can be appealed.
Animal activists and wildlife protection groups said that the court should uphold the Wildlife Conservation Act against violations by poachers, some of whom are engaged in illegal trade to supply restaurants with wild game meat.
Allowing an open interpretation of the law could lead to indiscriminate killing and the extinction of many protected species, they said.
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