The Control Yuan yesterday censured the Ministry of Agriculture and the Taoyuan Department of Agriculture for their failed coordination earlier this year in capturing an olive baboon that escaped from Hsinchu County’s Leofoo Village Theme Park, which led to it being shot and killed.
The department in March launched an operation to capture the baboon after it was spotted in southern Taoyuan. After running into a house, the baboon was shot and killed by a hunter who joined the operation.
Control Yuan members Jao Yung-ching (趙永清), Pasuya Poiconu and Chi Hui-jung (紀惠容) presented the results of their investigation at a news conference in Taipei.
Photo: Cheng Shu-ting, Taipei Times
The ministry, which is in charge of enforcing the Wildlife Conservation Act (野生動物保育法), should oversee wildlife protection affairs conducted by local governments, Jao said.
“The Taoyuan City Government had multiple times consulted the ministry’s Forestry and Nature Conservation Agency, but the agency indiscreetly contacted a hunter surnamed Lin (林) for help without adequately briefing him on the situation,” he said. “Lin drove a vehicle that had a placard saying that he was sent by the agency’s Hsinchu office to perform government duties, making people believe that he was dispatched by the central government to assist them.”
The ministry should be held accountable for turning a capture operation into a “hunt and kill” operation, he added.
The Taoyuan City Government is also to blame for failing to assign a commander to direct the operation on site, leading to chaotic personnel deployment, and allowing residents and news media to become bystanders without imposing any restrictions, Jao said.
Taoyuan Department of Agriculture officials claimed that they did not know that Lin had shot the baboon, which then led to a theme park employee firing another shot from a tranquilizer gun.
“The officials did not immediately check whether the baboon was injured after it was captured and instead invited people to take pictures with it before returning it to the theme park. The delay eventually led to the baboon’s death,” he said.
The department also generated controversy by having its staff bow to the baboon and put flowers around it the day after it died, which severely damaged the government’s image, Jao said.
The Leofoo Village Theme Park has yet to identify how the baboon had escaped and the exact number of baboons the park has, he said.
“While the park has been asked to reinforce measures to prevent animals from escaping, the Hsinchu County Government needs to ensure that the park continues to improve the quality of its habitats,” he said.
The ministry in a statement said that the censure is “regrettable” and denied having sent Lin to help with the baboon’s capture.
“We were in close contact with the Taoyuan City Government and Hsinchu County Government while the former was trying to catch the baboon. All parties agreed that the baboon should be captured alive,” it said.
“Apart from helping identify the names of animal species, we also advised the Taoyuan City Government to consider contacting staff at Taipei Zoo and Lin for assistance. The former has extensive experience in capturing escaped animals, while Lin’s team was experienced in tracking and removing non-indigenous species. However, we did not send Lin to capture the baboon,” the ministry said.
Lin said that he was there because of “multiple coincidences,” the ministry said, adding that he followed the orders of on-site personnel.
Although the Wildlife Conservation Act authorizes local officials, who also have experience handling unruly Formosan rock macaques, to protect wildlife, most local agricultural departments are understaffed and short of funding, the ministry said.
“We will work with local governments to ask for more government funding and advise them to recruit more workers. We will also regularly provide training on how to capture escaped animals,” the ministry said.
Meanwhile, the theme park last month finished calculating the number of baboons in its possession, the ministry said, adding that it has chips implanted in them and has sterilized them.
“We are proposing an amendment to the Regulations Governing Raising and Breeding of Protected or Dangerous Wildlife (保育類或具危險性野生動物飼養繁殖管理辦法), which would clearly define the ‘proper locations and equipment’ required to keep wildlife,” the ministry said.
The Taoyuan Department of Agriculture in a statement said that at the time of the incident, the central government did not have procedures in place for capturing and handling dangerous wildlife that had escaped their habitats.
“Following the incident, we have stipulated procedures and held drills to handle similar events in the future,” the department said. “We also plan to increase the budget to handle wildlife, establish a wildlife rescue center and entrust professionals with the task of capturing escaped animals.”
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