About 100 cats have been found in poor condition, along with feline corpses and skeletons, in Hsinchu County’s Hukou Township (湖口), allegedly abandoned by a Taoyuan-based cat vendor, an animal rescue organization said yesterday.
The cats have been found since June in what might be the largest cat abandonment case in the nation, Wang Wang Stray Animal Association director Yang Ying-ping (楊穎蘋) said.
The hut is close to a house rented by Taoyuan resident Huang Tien-en (黃天恩), who is known for keeping a large number of cats, Yang said.
“We have exhausted our resources for capturing abandoned cats and finding suitable adoptive families. Since neither we nor the Hsinchu County Animal Disease Control Center has the means to stop Huang, we decided to use the media to expose his practices and urge potential owners not to buy from him,” she said.
The association has posted graphic photographs and videos of injured and ill cats found in the area on its Facebook page.
“Huang might only be keeping healthy cats and tossing out unhealthy ones that cannot be sold to perish in the wild,” Yang said.
An association member found a Persian cat under a bridge connecting Hukou and Sinfong Township (新豐) in June, which led to the discovery of more purebred cats in the area, she said.
The association suspected that there might be a kitten mill in the area that was abandoned, but an investigation determined that most of the felines probably came from a building rented by Huang, she said.
An association member posing as a potential customer approached Huang, who offered to sell male cats for NT$3,700 each and females for NT$4,600 each, although he later refused to sell due to “legal issues,” Yang said.
Huang allegedly offers cats for adoption online and charges an “adoption fee,” and he has reportedly sold cats to pet shops, she said.
The Hsinchu center said animal welfare inspectors had visited the building Huang is renting for four times, but he does not live there and refused to let inspectors in. Neighbors have filed complaints about odors and noise from the building, it said.
Since the cats the association found were not microchipped, there is no proof that Huang abandoned them, the center said.
The center said Huang might face punishment for improper care and abandonment of animals, but it has not collected any direct evidence for such a case.
The law stipulates punishments for the illegal breeding and selling of dogs, but there is no punishment stipulated for illegally breeding and selling cats, rabbits, mice and birds, Yang said.
She said she hoped media coverage would pressure the government into revising the law to regulate breeding and selling of cats and other pets.
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