In Taipei, a pit bull raised by a man surnamed Hsu (徐) leaped out of a truck window and bit motorcyclists stopped at red lights twice in just 11 days. It is time to amend the law to increase the minimum penalties for dog attacks, to prevent irresponsible owners from continuing to let that kind of tragedy happen.
Article 20 of the Animal Protection Act (動物保護法) states that the “competent authority shall specify and declare the breed names of aggressive pets and relevant precaution to be taken.” The section titled “points to note for aggressive pets showing up in public places” says that dangerous dogs such as pit bulls should be placed in metal cages, or on chains or leashes no longer than 1.5m when entering and exiting public places, and they should also be muzzled.
Article 7 of the same law says: “An owner shall prevent his animal from infringing on the life, body, freedom, or property of others without due cause.”
However, what are an owner’s legal responsibilities if the dog bites a person? Contravention of Article 7 of the act only results in the seizure of the pet by the competent authority, while those who contravene Article 20 are only fined NT$30,000 to NT$150,000 (US$906 to US$4,532).
Moreover, according to Article 284 of the Criminal Code: “A person who negligently causes injury to another shall be sentenced to imprisonment for not more than one year, short-term imprisonment, or a fine of not more than NT$100,000; if serious physical injury results, he shall be sentenced to imprisonment for not more than three years, short-term imprisonment, or a fine of not more than NT$300,000.”
Article 276 of the code says:, “A person who negligently causes the death of another shall be sentenced to imprisonment for not more than five years, short-term imprisonment, or a fine of not more than NT$500,000.”
For the wealthy, such fines are insignificant. In Queensland, owners of dogs that attack another person causing serious injury or even death face three years in prison and a fine of A$108,000 (US$67,900). That is the kind of penalty that has a deterrent effect on owners.
We could learn from Australia’s example by lifting the minimum sentences and fines for dog attacks, such as at least two years of imprisonment or a fine of NT$600,000, so as to stop irresponsible owners from letting their dogs to hurt people freely.
It is not difficult to walk a dog on a leash. Hsu has said the pit bull is smart enough to open the window by itself. However smart it is, the dog would not be able to unleash itself.
Chi Chieh is the director of the New Party’s public opinion center.
Translated by Eddy Chang
From the Iran war and nuclear weapons to tariffs and artificial intelligence, the agenda for this week’s Beijing summit between US President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) is packed. Xi would almost certainly bring up Taiwan, if only to demonstrate his inflexibility on the matter. However, no one needs to meet with Xi face-to-face to understand his stance. A visit to the National Museum of China in Beijing — in particular, the “Road to Rejuvenation” exhibition, which chronicles the rise and rule of the Chinese Communist Party — might be even more revealing. Xi took the members
After Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairwoman Cheng Li-wun (鄭麗文) met Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) in Beijing, most headlines referred to her as the leader of the opposition in Taiwan. Is she really, though? Being the chairwoman of the KMT does not automatically translate into being the leader of the opposition in the sense that most foreign readers would understand it. “Leader of the opposition” is a very British term. It applies to the Westminster system of parliamentary democracy, and to some extent, to other democracies. If you look at the UK right now, Conservative Party head Kemi Badenoch is
A Pale View of Hills, a movie released last year, follows the story of a Japanese woman from Nagasaki who moved to Britain in the 1950s with her British husband and daughter from a previous marriage. The daughter was born at a time when memories of the US atomic bombing of Nagasaki during World War II and anxiety over the effects of nuclear radiation still haunted the community. It is a reflection on the legacy of the local and national trauma of the bombing that ended the period of Japanese militarism. A central theme of the movie is the need, at
The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) on Friday used their legislative majority to push their version of a special defense budget bill to fund the purchase of US military equipment, with the combined spending capped at NT$780 billion (US$24.78 billion). The bill, which fell short of the Executive Yuan’s NT$1.25 trillion request, was passed by a 59-0 margin with 48 abstentions in the 113-seat legislature. KMT Chairwoman Cheng Li-wun (鄭麗文), who reportedly met with TPP Chairman Huang Kuo-chang (黃國昌) for a private meeting before holding a joint post-vote news conference, was said to have mobilized her
RSS