Taiwan is to ban the killing of animals at state-run animal shelters next year as scheduled, Council of Agriculture Minister Tsao Chi-hung (曹啟鴻) said yesterday.
Regardless of the difficulty, “the implementation of the no-kill policy will not be delayed,” Tsao said at a news conference after the Cabinet’s regular weekly meeting.
The Animal Protection Act (動物保護法) was amended in February last year to prohibit putting animals down at public shelters for stray animals. According to the revised act, killing animals that have been held at public shelters for 12 days or more would have to cease from Feb. 4.
However, it is doubtful whether the new policy can be implemented as scheduled, with many cities and counties saying they cannot achieve the goal.
Twelve city and county governments have warned that they would be unable to comply, Tsao said.
Nevetheless, those administrations will have the assistance of the central government to cope with any problems, he said.
According to a Council of Agriculture report, of the nation’s 22 municipalities and counties, only three — New Taipei City, Kaohsiung and Taitung County — have achieved the goal of no longer putting down animals at public shelters.
Seven regions, including Taipei, Taichung, Tainan, Taoyuan, Yilan County, Keelung and Lienchiang County, said they could achieve the goal of zero killings next year, but they would have difficulty continuing to do so in the following years, the report said.
Hsinchu County, Hsinchu City, Miaoli County, Changhua County, Nantou County, Yunlin County, Chiayi County, Chiayi City, Pingtung County, Hualien County, Penghu County and Kinmen County have said that it would be difficult for them to maintain their animal shelters without putting animals down.
The council said that challenges facing implementation of the new policy include demands from the public that stray dogs and cats be captured, while capacity at public shelters to house them is limited.
Other reasons include the low acceptance of adopting pets from shelters rather than purchasing them, while there are complaints that resources for animal protection are not distributed evenly among urban and rural areas.
In Chiayi County, about 4,000 stray dogs are captured each year, but public shelters in the region can only accommodate up to 150 animals, according to an Aug. 12 report in the Chinese-language United Daily News.
The Chiayi County Government has said that for it to be able to carry out the no-kill policy as scheduled, shelters would have no option but to stop taking in stray dogs and cats, according to the newspaper.
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