Amid concern that dogs are being trained to hunt and kill stray cats in Taipei, the Taipei City Government yesterday said that it has received 85 such reports this year.
Officials said they are checking the reports to see if any of them overlap.
Animal protection volunteers said people have been spotted taking dogs into lanes and alleys in Taipei on rainy nights and when a cat is targeted, the dogs attack, inflicting fatal injuries.
Photo: screen grab from Facebook
The volunteers said that after the cats were killed, they heard the sound of a whistle, at which point the dogs ran off.
The dogs did not bark throughout the attacks, making the volunteers suspect that the animals have had their vocal cords removed and have been trained to kill, and were not simply chasing the cats.
Police said that when they were investigating one case in Xinyi District (信義) in September, they found a man surnamed Chen (陳), 55, surrounded by dogs.
Chen said that he was a cleaner and that the cat was chased because it came too close when he was feeding the stray dogs. He denied purposely setting the dogs on the cat.
The police sent the case to the Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office for investigation, while the Animal Protection Office rounded up six dog “suspects” and sent them to an animal shelter.
“They will be examined by veterinarians to determine whether they have been trained to hunt, which could help shed some light on the reported abuses,” the Animal Protection Office said.
Instances of dogs killing cats, mostly feral, have been reported in Neihu (內湖), Datong (大同), Zhongshan (中山) and Xinyi districts in the past two months, it said.
The office said that due to limited government staff and resources, the authorities have to rely on the public to solve a lot of cases. It urged the public to report any evidence they have to the 1999 Citizen Hotline.
Environment and Animal Society of Taiwan director Chen Yu-min (陳玉敏) said that the government should not treat the reports lightly, adding that if the dogs were to start attacking people, it would create panic.
Chen Yu-min said that people who unleash dogs to kill cats are in violation of the Animal Protection Act (動物保護法), and if found guilty they can be jailed for up to one year and fined NT$100,000 to NT$1 million (US$3,178 to US$31,778).
MORE VISITORS: The Tourism Administration said that it is seeing positive prospects in its efforts to expand the tourism market in North America and Europe Taiwan has been ranked as the cheapest place in the world to travel to this year, based on a list recommended by NerdWallet. The San Francisco-based personal finance company said that Taiwan topped the list of 16 nations it chose for budget travelers because US tourists do not need visas and travelers can easily have a good meal for less than US$10. A bus ride in Taipei costs just under US$0.50, while subway rides start at US$0.60, the firm said, adding that public transportation in Taiwan is easy to navigate. The firm also called Taiwan a “food lover’s paradise,” citing inexpensive breakfast stalls
TRADE: A mandatory declaration of origin for manufactured goods bound for the US is to take effect on May 7 to block China from exploiting Taiwan’s trade channels All products manufactured in Taiwan and exported to the US must include a signed declaration of origin starting on May 7, the Bureau of Foreign Trade announced yesterday. US President Donald Trump on April 2 imposed a 32 percent tariff on imports from Taiwan, but one week later announced a 90-day pause on its implementation. However, a universal 10 percent tariff was immediately applied to most imports from around the world. On April 12, the Trump administration further exempted computers, smartphones and semiconductors from the new tariffs. In response, President William Lai’s (賴清德) administration has introduced a series of countermeasures to support affected
CROSS-STRAIT: The vast majority of Taiwanese support maintaining the ‘status quo,’ while concern is rising about Beijing’s influence operations More than eight out of 10 Taiwanese reject Beijing’s “one country, two systems” framework for cross-strait relations, according to a survey released by the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) on Thursday. The MAC’s latest quarterly survey found that 84.4 percent of respondents opposed Beijing’s “one country, two systems” formula for handling cross-strait relations — a figure consistent with past polling. Over the past three years, opposition to the framework has remained high, ranging from a low of 83.6 percent in April 2023 to a peak of 89.6 percent in April last year. In the most recent poll, 82.5 percent also rejected China’s
PLUGGING HOLES: The amendments would bring the legislation in line with systems found in other countries such as Japan and the US, Legislator Chen Kuan-ting said Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Chen Kuan-ting (陳冠廷) has proposed amending national security legislation amid a spate of espionage cases. Potential gaps in security vetting procedures for personnel with access to sensitive information prompted him to propose the amendments, which would introduce changes to Article 14 of the Classified National Security Information Protection Act (國家機密保護法), Chen said yesterday. The proposal, which aims to enhance interagency vetting procedures and reduce the risk of classified information leaks, would establish a comprehensive security clearance system in Taiwan, he said. The amendment would require character and loyalty checks for civil servants and intelligence personnel prior to