The Taipei City Government has fined a dog owner NT$200,000 and seized his pit bull terrier after it in two separate incidents leaped out of a truck window and bit motorcyclists stopped at a red light.
In a statement issued late on Monday, the Taipei Animal Protection Office said it had been investigating the dog’s owner, surnamed Hsu (徐), for contraventions of the Animal Protection Act (動物保護法) stemming from the dog’s first attack on March 6 when it learned of the second attack on Monday morning.
In light of Hsu’s inability to control his dog, the office said it issued him fines totaling NT$140,000 for the two attacks, and seized and impounded the animal.
Photo: Liu Yung-yun, Taipei Times
However, shortly after, the Taipei Department of Economic Development — the animal protection office’s parent agency — said that after reviewing the decision, it raised the fines for the two attacks to NT$50,000 and NT$150,000, for a total of NT$200,000.
Under the Animal Protection Act, NT$150,000 is the maximum fine that can be issued for contravening Article 20, Clause 2 of the act, namely allowing an aggressive pet to roam in a public place without proper supervision and precautions.
Taipei Animal Protection Office official Hua Hsin-huei (華心惠) yesterday said the office confiscated the dog after meeting with Hsu at his home at about 12:40pm.
Photo courtesy of the Tainan City Government via CNA
Hsu told animal welfare officials he was upset to give up the dog, named “Lucky,” which he had had for more than 10 years, but acknowledged that he was unable to control the animal, Hua said.
The dog would be placed at a care facility where specialists would evaluate whether it is suitable to be put up for adoption, she said.
If the dog’s behavior can be improved, it would be put up for adoption to people meeting certain criteria, but if it remains aggressive, it would have to be euthanized, she said.
City government sources said that as of yesterday morning, the motorcyclists bitten by Lucky had not filed lawsuits against Hsu.
The first person bitten, surnamed Huang (黃), has returned to Kaohsiung to undergo procedures to remove dead tissue from his bite wounds, the sources said.
The name of the second person has not been released.
Hsu Shu-lei (徐書磊) — the chief of operations at the Plain Law Movement, a Web site that aims to explain the workings of Taiwan’s legal system in everyday language — issued a statement identifying the dog’s owner as his father and apologizing for the incidents.
In the statement, Hsu Shu-lei said that in the past few years, he and other members of his family, except for his father, had been unable to go near Lucky because of the dog’s “fierce personality.”
He added that his father was in talks with both of the people bitten to compensate them for the attacks.
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