The Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office has indicted a man for allegedly abusing and killing a pet rabbit, which he said was affectionate to his wife, but often ignored him.
The man, surnamed Chen (陳), said the rabbit was indifferent to him and sometimes bit him, the office said.
“To teach the rabbit a lesson,” the man would drop it from a high place or pinch its neck with the door or its iron cage, the office quoted him as saying.
The rabbit was found dead by social workers, who visited the man’s house in May last year to investigate allegations of domestic violence, the office said.
Chen’s wife said he has a bad temper and was abusive toward her and the rabbit, it said.
The Taipei City Animal Protection Office conducted an autopsy and found that the rabbit had multiple internal and external injuries — enough evidence for the office to indict the man on Monday, it said.
According to the Animal Protection Act (動物保護法), people convicted of killing, intentionally hurting or causing injury to an animal, resulting in mangled limbs or vital organ failure, would face imprisonment of less than two years or a fine of between NT$200,000 and NT$2 million (US$6,639 and US$66,389).
In a separate case, Taipei prosecutors on Tuesday charged a medical intern surnamed Huang (黃) with unlawful entry and attempted burglary for allegedly entering the apartment of a former girlfriend to retrieve his cat.
The two broke up in 2018 and the woman, an intern at the same hospital, changed the lock to her rental apartment, they said.
To retrieve the cat and some personal belongings, Huang allegedly stole the key to her apartment from her bag when she was on duty, they said.
He made a copy of the key before returning it to her bag, they said, adding that Huang used the key to enter the apartment and encountered the woman’s sister inside.
Huang said he was not trying to steal anything and only wanted to retrieve his cat and other personal effects.
As Huang has yet to return his copy of the apartment key, the office charged him with unlawful entry and attempted burglary.
The first of 10 new high-capacity trains purchased from South Korea’s Hyundai Rotem arrived at the Port of Taipei yesterday to meet the demands of an expanding metro network, Taipei Rapid Transit Corp (TRTC) said yesterday. The train completed a three-day, 1,200km voyage from the Port of Masan in South Korea, the company said. Costing NT$590 million (US$18.79 million) each, the new six-carriage trains feature a redesigned interior based on "human-centric" transportation concepts, TRTC said. The design utilizes continuous longitudinal seating to widen the aisles and optimize passenger flow, while also upgrading passenger information displays and driving control systems for a more comfortable
Taiwan's first indigenous defense submarine, the SS-711 Hai Kun (海鯤, or Narwhal), departed for its 13th sea trial at 7am today, marking its seventh submerged test, with delivery to the navy scheduled for July. The outing also marked its first sea deployment since President William Lai (賴清德) boarded the submarine for an inspection on March 19, drawing a crowd of military enthusiasts who gathered to show support. The submarine this morning departed port accompanied by CSBC Corp’s Endeavor Manta (奮進魔鬼魚號) uncrewed surface vessel and a navy M109 assault boat. Amid public interest in key milestones such as torpedo-launching operations and overnight submerged trials,
Quarantine awareness posters at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport have gone viral for their use of wordplay. Issued by the airport branch of the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Agency, the posters feature sniffer dogs making a range of facial expressions, paired with advisory messages built around homophones. “We update the messages for holidays and campaign needs, periodically refreshing materials to attract people’s attention,” quarantine officials said. “The aim is to use the dogs’ appeal to draw focus to quarantine regulations.” A Japanese traveler visiting Taiwan has posted a photo on X of a poster showing a quarantine dog with a
Taiwan’s coffee community has launched a “one-person-one-e-mail” campaign, calling for people to send a protest-e-mail to the World Coffee Championships (WCC) urging it to redesignate Taiwanese competitors as from “Taiwan,” rather than “Chinese Taipei.” The call followed sudden action last week after the WCC changed all references to Taiwanese competitors from “Taiwan” to “Chinese Taipei,” including recent World Latte Art champion Bala (林紹興), who won the World Latte Art Championship in San Diego earlier this month. When Bala received the trophy, he was referred to as representing Taiwan, as well as in the announcement on the WCC’s Web site, until it
RSS