A project to remove stray dogs from sensitive habitats in central Taiwan is to begin next month, in tandem with an initiative encouraging local residents to spay and neuter their pets, the Ministry of Agriculture said on Tuesday.
The project is to focus on nine hotspot areas for leopard cat conservation in Taichung, Miaoli County and Nantou County, Department of Animal Welfare administrative section Director Cheng Chu-ching (鄭祝菁) said in a telephone interview.
After discussions with relevant organizations and reviewing proposals from local governments, the project is expected to begin in the middle of next month, Cheng said, adding that details would be adjusted as needed moving forward.
Photo: Hua Meng-ching, Taipei Times
This year, NT$25 million (US$775,575) has been allocated for the project, including ecological monitoring and a stray dog population tally, she said.
However, Cheng also emphasized that relocation is a last resort, second to population control.
“It is extremely important to speak with owners of free-roaming dogs ... to convey the importance of desexing, or else they will continue to multiply and it will be impossible to solve the problem,” she said.
Pet dogs near the designated zones must be registered, desexed and cannot be free-roaming, department Director-General Chen Chung-hsing (陳中興) has previously said.
Dogs remaining on the streets would be captured and moved to shelters, he said.
As designated control areas in Taichung are limited, shelters in the city should have enough room, while additional facilities would be set up at existing shelters in Miaoli and Nantou counties to accommodate the relocated strays with enough outdoor activity space, Cheng said.
The control areas are Taichung’s Taiping (太平), Sinshe (新社) and Dongshi (東勢) districts; Nantou County’s Jhongliao (中寮), Mingjian (名間) and Jiji (集集) townships; and Miaoli County’s Jhuolan (卓蘭), Houlong (後龍) and Tongsiao (通霄) townships.
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