A taxi driver who deserted his pet cats in Banciao District (板橋), following which they were found dead, was arrested by police in New Taipei City, the city’s Haishan Precinct said on Friday.
The man, surnamed Hsieh (謝), was arrested in the city’s Jhonghe District (中和) on Friday afternoon, after investigators combed through surveillance video footage a day earlier, police said.
Hsieh, who still has kittens at home, admitted to abandoning the cats due to a lack of income and pressure from his family. However, he insisted that the cats were alive when he left them, the police said.
Photo copied by Wu Jen-chieh, Taipei Times
New Taipei City Animal Protection and Health Inspection Office head Yang Shu-fang (楊淑方) on Friday said that an autopsy of the seven dead cats showed they had broken ribs and scalps, as well as puncture wounds in their organs.
Those findings indicate that the cats were likely killed by outside forces, Yang said.
Police said they would investigate whether the cats died from being attacked by another animal, as there are many stray dogs in the area where the cats were found, before handing the investigation to prosecutors.
Yang said Hsieh had committed other offenses, for which he would be fined.
The office found a total of 11 adult cats and five kittens at Hsieh’s home, and none of them had been microchipped or vaccinated against rabies, in contravention of the Animal Protection Act (動物保護法) and the Act for Prevention and Control of Infectious Animal Disease (動物傳染病防治條例), Yang said.
The office would also investigate if the taxi driver was involved in breeding the animals illegally, Yang added.
A magnitude 5.7 earthquake struck off Taitung County at 1:09pm today, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. The hypocenter was 53km northeast of Taitung County Hall at a depth of 12.5km, CWA data showed. The intensity of the quake, which gauges the actual effect of a seismic event, measured 4 in Taitung County and Hualien County on Taiwan's seven-tier intensity scale, the data showed. The quake had an intensity of 3 in Nantou County, Chiayi County, Yunlin County, Kaohsiung and Tainan, the data showed. There were no immediate reports of damage following the quake.
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