Hualien County councilors are in discussion with the Hualien County Government on how to help local establishments obtain a license to charge visitors to interact with animals.
There are nine restaurants or farms in the county that allow people to feed or pet animals on the premises, but they do that without any licensing and that contravenes the Animal Exhibition Management Act (動物展演管理辦法規範), Hualien County Councilor Wu Tung-sheng (吳東昇) said.
The manager of the Jian Township (吉安)-based Wild Life Inc, surnamed Wang (王), said the rivers and beaches of the county are very suited to riding horses in the wild.
Photo courtesy of Wildlife Inc
However, limiting the riding of horses to “specific areas” prevents the activity from being an educational one, Wang said.
The Manager of the Fonglin Township (鳳林)-based LimaPeer Education Workshop, surnamed Lin (林), said the organization sees itself as an educational institution and should be able to put animals on exhibit or perform without a permit.
Some restaurant owners said the laws target the leisure agriculture industry, adding that for restaurants raising animals on a small scale, it is very difficult to become legitimate.
Hualien County Councilor Wei Chia-hsien (魏嘉賢) earlier this week said that the Animal Exhibition Act, promulgated in 2019, only enabled licensing of the Farglory Ocean Park and Farm Dream Estates, both owned by large corporations.
The legislation should be more friendly toward small businesses, he said.
Regulations state that the exhibition of animals should be in fixed locations that are in line with the Land Act (土地法) and the Building Act (建築法), Hualien County Animal and Plant Quarantine Department Director Huang Te-jung (黃得榮) said.
None of the current applicants meet the standards, he said.
Any exhibition or performance of animals requires licensing as stipulated under Article 6 of the Animal Protection Act (動物保護法), the county government said.
Applicants should be an educational facility, a leisure farm or a tourism facility, it said.
The animals put on exhibit or performance should be listed as “economic animals” under the Animal Industry Act (畜牧法), it said.
Upon receiving an application, it evaluates if the land complies with regulations, the county government added.
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