Controversy continued over the illegal serving of Taiwan’s endangered animals as banquet dishes, with many people calling for a boycott of ATT Group’s Butterfly Dining (彩蝶宴) restaurant, as employees of several government agencies were yesterday revealed to be frequent patrons.
The Food and Drug Administration and other agencies under the Ministry of Health and Welfare faced public condemnation after reports were leaked of social events and banquets held by them at Butterfly Dining, an upscale restaurant in Taipei.
Officials from the implicated government agencies yesterday announced the cancelation of their year-end banquets, originally planned for later this month at the restaurant, saying that they must make alternative arrangements.
Taipei prosecutors are seeking to file charges on contraventions of the Wildlife Conservation Act (野生動物保育法) after a raid on Wednesday found butchered Formosan serows and Formosan Reeve’s muntjacs, which are endangered species of deer found in deep mountain forests and protected by the law, in the restaurant’s freezer.
Police and Taipei animal protection officers mounted the raid, after a whistle-blower provided videos of cooks preparing carcasses of pangolin, serow and muntjac for dishes and showed pictures of a special menu at the restaurant, which included dishes such as “Red Roast Muntjac Meat” (紅燒山羌肉) and “Three Cup Pangolin” (三杯穿山甲).
Animal rights advocates and wildlife conservationists were outraged at the illegal poaching and butchering of protected animals, urging the public to boycott the restaurant.
Many people said the boycott should be extended to ATT Group, the parent company, and denounced group chairman Tai Chun-fa (戴春發), as the special menu indicated that it had been prepared for a banquet hosted by Tai.
Environment and Animal Society of Taiwan director Chen Yu-min (陳玉敏) was riled by Tai’s business of butchering and serving protected wildlife.
“In Taiwan, we still have these kinds of people who are wealthy, but they behave in immoral ways,” Chen said. “They are impoverished in everything, only having money on their mind. They think nothing of killing and eating baby muntjacs.”
The slaughtered animals found at the restaurant were identified as three muntjacs fawns, two adult muntjacs, one Formosan serow and the heads of two muntjacs, Conservation Division Director Hsia Jung-sheng (夏榮生) said.
“It is illegal to sell any protected animals,” she said. “Under the Wildlife Conservation Act, it is against the law to disturb, abuse, hunt, kill, or otherwise utilize protected wildlife species.”
Authorities positively identified the animals in the videos and photographs as native species that are under protection in Taiwan, Hsia said. “We are certain that the restaurant contravened the law.”
Police officers obtained a court-approved search warrant to investigate the restaurant, accompanied by animal protection officials. The restaurant staff and cooks were uncooperative at first, claiming that the carcasses were dog meat to mislead authorities.
The proprietors issued a statement late on Wednesday, denying the allegations.
“The protected animals found in the freezer were put there by individual employees for their own personal use, and had nothing to do with our restaurant,” the statement said. “In the future, we will improve our management and the training of our employees to prevent such situations from occurring.”
Despite the restaurant’s denial, many netizens and animal conservation organizations decried the restaurant as trying to whitewash its role in the case, and Tai and his company as attempting to shed their legal responsibility of the matter.
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