Taipei will soon become the first city in the country to set up a police unit to exclusively handle cases of animal abuse, the city government said yesterday.
Taipei City deputy police commissioner Chen Chien-fa (陳建發) said 28 police officers will be selected from the city’s 14 precincts next month to man the new unit.
Taipei City Councilor Dai Hsi-chin (戴錫欽) of the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT), who has long advocated establishing an animal protection police unit, said the proposed group would be an informal task force rather than a new formal division of the department.
Establishing a division, he said, requires the potentially time-consuming step of amending the law, and the city government felt that the police needed to be involved in animal protection without delay.
“Without the help of the police, it is almost impossible to prevent animal abuse,” Dai said.
The councilor touted the move as a major step forward for the country in animal protection, and he suggested that the new police unit might even be the first set up in Asia.
According to the city’s Animal Protection Office, more than 400 animal abuse cases were reported between January and July this year.
However, as members of the office and private animal protection groups do not have the legal authority to make arrests or enforce the law, their animal rescue efforts are often hampered, officials said.
Animal protection office director Yen I-feng (嚴一峰) said at the Taipei City Council that people from animal protection bodies can conduct administrative investigations, but they may not be able to stop animal abuse even if they find something wrong at the scene of a case.
Chen, the city’s deputy police commissioner, said his department will train the newly recruited police officers assigned to the animal protection unit to familiarize them with related laws and professional skills.
Taiwan does not exclude the possibility of having formal diplomatic relations with countries that also have formal ties with China, regardless of Beijing’s stance, Minister of Foreign Affairs Joseph Wu (吳釗燮) said on Sunday. There was speculation in 2012 that Honduras was attempting to have simultaneous diplomatic relations with Taiwan and China, an idea that then-minister of foreign affairs David Lin (林永樂) rejected. Honduras severed formal ties with Taiwan on Sunday morning after establishing diplomatic relations with Beijing. President Tsai Ing-wen’s (蔡英文) administration has taken a more practical approach to relations with like-minded countries since assuming government in 2016. Previous administrations took the
Seven senior faculty members, including the principal, of a high school in Taichung were temporarily suspended from their jobs on Friday, pending an investigation by the Taichung Education Bureau into alleged bullying and abuse that led to the suicide of a student last month. The city’s education officials were too slow to suspend those involved, the student’s father told a news conference on Wednesday, at which Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Chang Liao Wan-chien (張廖萬堅) and members of the Humanistic Education Foundation were also present. The boy had been a good student and a high achiever during elementary and junior-high, and had
ORIGIN UNKNOWN: The Leofoo Village Theme Park and Taipei Zoo have accounted for their baboons, as authorities continue a 12-day capture attempt Authorities in Taoyuan are searching for a non-native baboon, possibly of the chacma species, that has been spotted several times in the city’s Pingjhen District (平鎮) over the past 12 days, and was most recently seen in coastal Sinwu District (新屋). The baboon was first spotted near a local factory on March 10 in central Taoyuan, Jhensing Borough Warden Huang Chih-chieh (黃志杰) said. Huang said he requested the Leofoo Village Theme Park’s help after a second sighting on Saturday. In other sightings, the baboon raided fruit and vegetable gardens on private property, and has evaded one capture attempt via a tranquilizer dart. Media reported
Taiwan would have established formal relations with Argentina long ago if not for China’s interference, Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs Alexander Yui told US-based Spanish-language online news outlet Infobae in an interview published on Tuesday. Beijing has left behind a string of unfulfilled promises in Latin America, including pledges to build the Grand Nicaragua Canal and airports, docks, ports and industrial zones in El Salvador, he said. Meanwhile, Brazil, Argentina, Chile, Mexico and other countries enjoy pragmatic and improving relations with Taiwan based on cooperation on the economy, culture, technology and science, he said. While Taiwan is “happy to live and let live,”
RSS