The Executive Yuan yesterday approved draft amendments to the Wildlife Conservation Act (野生動物保育法), completely banning animal traps and stating that owners would pay for costs incurred while capturing animals that have escaped.
The proposed changes were made following the killing of a baboon during an attempt to capture it following its escape from Leofoo Village Theme Park in March last year.
Amendments would be made to Article 31 and an article 50-1 would be added.
Photo: Huang Mei-chu, Taipei Times
“The amendments take into consideration that efforts to recapture escaped animals could incur extra costs for the state and members of society,” the Ministry of Agriculture said.
They also make clear that the owners are obliged to inform authorities that their animal has escaped, the ministry said.
Failure to report or to recapture runaway animals would lead to heavier fines, as this could “lead to public fear and unrest, as well as inadvertently affect the lives and property of others,” the draft amendments say.
Regulations already prohibit the manufacture, sale and use of animal traps, so the amendments only make the trap ban official, the ministry said.
Moreover, the proposed amendments would also relax regulations on indigenous hunting and create some flexibility, the ministry added.
This could set the foundation for allowing indigenous people to submit non-profit hunting documentation after, instead of in advance, if there are unanticipated events such as births or deaths, it said.
A clause stating that unapproved hunting of conserved species is an offense that can be fined up to NT$100,000 was also added, closing a previous loophole in which non-approved indigenous hunting of common animals was a finable offense, but no regulations were in place for conserved species, the draft amendments say.
In 2013, Bunun man Tama Talum was accused of contravening the Controlling Guns, Ammunition and Knives Act (槍砲彈藥刀械管制條例) and the Wildlife Conservation Act for using a modified rifle to kill protected animals.
The Council of Grand Justices in 2021 issued Constitutional Interpretation No. 803, stating that some restrictions on indigenous people were unconstitutional.
The Supreme Court dismissed his three-year, six-month sentence.
Additional reporting by CNA
A total of 400 foreign “high- level” professionals have been naturalized as Republic of China (Taiwan) citizens over the past decade as the government has eased nationality rules to attract talent from a wider range of fields, the Ministry of the Interior said yesterday. The 400th high-level professional, who works in the electronics industry, was approved for ROC citizenship on Aug. 26, the MOI said. The MOI quoted the newly naturalized citizen as saying that Taiwan is a leader in fields such as semiconductors, electronics manufacturing, artificial intelligence development and energy technology. He also said
China has warned that it could cancel a planned US-China leaders’ summit if Washington approves new arms sales to Taiwan, a Japanese media outlet quoted sources as saying yesterday. US President Donald Trump, “apparently eager to showcase some diplomatic achievements ahead of November’s midterm congressional elections, places great importance on holding the summit with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平),” Japan’s Kyodo News reported. “While preparing for Xi’s upcoming trip, China has restated its position that the Taiwan issue is a ‘red line’ in bilateral relations,” the report said. The report said that when Xi met with Trump in Beijing in May, Xi said
RARE PEEK: The footage released showed one of the bears staying in a cave for as long as 70 days, providing the first record of Formosan black bear’s overwintering The Forestry and Nature Conservation Agency yesterday released tracking records of released Formosan black bears for the first time, showing that they get much closer to human settlements than previously thought. The agency said it had captured two bears, Da Qu-ali (達古阿里) and Aziman (阿里曼), in indigenous villages in Hualien County and began to track them with a camera-mounted satellite collar after releasing them back into the wild. The results confirmed that the bears have moved from deep mountain areas into lowland hills closer to human communities, leading to an increase in human-bear conflicts, it said. The agency has introduced artificial intelligence-assisted early
DIPLOMATIC TOUR: Chinese President Xi Jinping began a series of overseas visits last month to Kyrgyzstan, Egypt and India, aimed at securing leverage, an official said Recent Chinese diplomatic and military moves are aimed at creating pressure ahead of a planned meeting between Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) and US President Donald Trump, National Security Council adviser Huang Chung-yen (黃重諺) said. Trump when visiting China in May extended an invitation to Xi to visit Washington on Sept. 24. China is yet to officially announce plans for Xi’s visit to the US. In an interview with the Liberty Times (sister paper of the Taipei Times) on Thursday, Huang said Xi’s overseas visits, China’s “gray zone” activities along the First Island Chain and efforts to expand its trade surplus with the
RSS