There was an uproar outside the Taipei District Court on Tuesday after a hearing in the trial of National Taiwan University graduate student Chen Hao-yang (陳皓揚) for allegedly strangling a cat known as “Big Orange” in December last year, with scores of protesters scuffling with police and some assaulting Chen.
The case of Chen, who is a self-confessed repeat offender, has highlighted the inadequacies of the Animal Protection Act (動物保護法) when it comes to deterring or punishing those who deliberately hurt or kill cats, dogs and other animals considered pets, as opposed to livestock or those kept in captivity, such as zoo animals.
However, problems with the treatment of animals, whether pets, strays, zoo inhabitants, livestock or wild, go much further than what the law covers. Much more needs to be done to protect them.
Chen, who has admitted to having “a psychological problem” when it comes to killing cats, is not the only person to have recently made headlines for animal abuse.
A video made by six Republic of China Marines, who caught and hanged a dog in June at their base in Kaohsiung’s Sizihwan District (西子灣), went viral on the Internet. Earlier that month, a National Defense University instructor, a lieutenant colonel, was accused by his ex-girlfriend of abusing one of her cats, in an incident again captured on video.
Council of Agriculture Animal Husbandry Division Deputy Director Wang Chung-shu (王忠恕) has said that while the act stipulates a maximum one-year prison sentence, no offender has served a prison sentence in addition to paying a fine and the act does not provide any education measures to prevent animal abuse, even for repeat offenders.
The law also falls short when it comes to illegal breeders of animals. It stipulates punishments for the illegal breeding and selling of dogs, but omits cats, rabbits, mice and birds.
The Wang Wang Stray Animal Association this month publicized its frustrations in trying to curb the activities of a Taoyuan resident who allegedly breeds cats illegally. About 100 cats in poor condition, along with corpses and skeletons of felines, have been found in Hsinchu County close to a house the man rents. Inspectors from the Hsinchu County Animal Disease Control Center have repeatedly tried to visit his building, but have been denied entry. Although the center says the man could face punishment for improper care and abandonment of animals, it has not opened a case because the abandoned and dead cats were not microchipped, so there is no evidence linking them to the man.
There have also been far too many cases where animals kept in captivity have died or been injured.
In the latest incident, the Taipei Zoo planned to ship a male giraffe, Hsiao Chiu (宵久), to the Leofoo Village Zoo on Wednesday last week to participate in a breeding program, but the giraffe began to panic in its travel cage, collapsed and later died. An autopsy found he had pneumonia, which triggered breathing difficulties and led to his death from cardiac arrest.
The zoo knew seven-year-old Hsiao Chiu was prone to anxiety, and said the transfer was delayed from an initial June date to give him more time to adjust to the travel cage.
The zoo said it did not to do a blood test beforehand because it did not want to cause Hsiao Chiu more trauma, calling his death a “tragic accident.”
Actually, it was sheer negligence that Hsiao Chiu was not given a thorough health check before Wednesday, which would have picked up the pneumonia and hopefully led to a postponement of the transfer.
The Animal Protection Act was a major step forward, but it remains like a sieve, with countless animals needlessly falling through the gaps. Amendments are urgently needed to better protect animals — pet, wild, stray or in zoos — by increasing the penalties for people who abuse animals and funding public education programs and abuse prevention programs.
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