Pet shop owners are to be required to register transactions online to make the origin of animals more transparent and assist the authorities in preventing pet smuggling, the Council of Agriculture (COA) said yesterday.
The decision was made after the authorities on Aug. 21 put down 154 smuggled cats because they might have carried disease, posing a risk to the health of pets and livestock in Taiwan.
Police later arrested a suspect surnamed Lin (林) who owns an animal breeding facility in Kaohsiung and is believed to be behind the smuggling attempt.
Lin is being detained on suspicion of contravening the Statute for Prevention and Control of Infectious Animal Diseases (動物傳染病防治條例).
Existing laws require pet shop owners to register the origin of each pet they sell, as well as the buyer’s information, but they are not required to digitize the data, meaning they could choose to record the information on paper only, the COA said.
This makes it difficult for authorities to conduct regular checks on pet sales and creates loopholes, COA official Chiang Wen-chuan (江文全) said.
To prevent smuggling, Chiang said that the COA would require the roughly 2,000 pet shop operators in Taiwan to register transactions online, while increasing checks on the transactions.
The online system is expected to be completed by the end of this year before it officially goes online early next year, Chiang said.
The COA and lawmakers previously said they would increase penalties for animal smuggling.
The Animal Protection Act (動物保護法) imposes fines of NT$40,000 to NT$200,000 to breeders or traders selling pets without permits, or trading such animals to a third party without microchipping the animals.
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