Wildlife protection groups yesterday called for action to stop stray dogs from attacking and killing Taiwan’s leopard cats and pangolins.
Activists and conservation experts, joined by Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Ngalim Tiunn (張雅琳), at a news conference at the legislature said that many of Taiwan’s native species are under serious threat, which they said could lead to collapse of whole ecosystems in some regions.
They showed photos of dead leopard cats and pangolins, as well as pictures from a recent incident, which Wild at Heart Taiwan Legal Defense Association members said showed a Formosan sika deer being attacked by a pack of stray dogs.
Photo: Yang Yuan-ting, Taipei Times
Ngalim mentioned news reports from July, which said that a 79-year-old man went for a swim near a fishing harbor north of Kaohsiung where three dogs attacked him, leading to his death.
“Stray dogs and cats roam in rural areas freely, causing injuries and death to wildlife species and humans. They are a public safety issue,” she said. “Farmers have material losses, due to stray dogs attacking their hens.”
She said that each year more than 3,000 traffic accidents occur due to stray dogs.
“These accidents result in death and serious injuries to motorists,” she said.
Some people concerned with animal welfare feed stray animals regularly, but the practice should be banned, as it leads to the deaths of pangolins, leopard cats and other native species, she said.
The groups said that current policies — especially trap-neuter-return (TNR) — do not work.
TNR has led to the destruction of the local ecosystem, they said, demanding the removal of strays from certain areas such as parks, forest preserves and ecology protection areas, a no-return policy after neutering, and a crackdown against feeding stray dogs and cats.
Wildlife researcher Chen Tai-hao (陳泰豪) said that in his focus of study in southern Taiwan he observed that the pangolin population has been in rapid decline.
“Rescue reports of injured pangolins in 2023 and last year showed that 83 percent of injuries were due to attacks by stray dogs, and field cameras in these regions showed only 10 percent of dogs had collars,” he said.
“The situation is out of control. While pangolins are supposed to be protected in these designated areas, we see people feeding stray dogs regularly, growing their population and endangering pangolins,” he added.
Veterinarian Hsiao Shun-ting (蕭舜庭) said that 60 to 80 percent of road-killed leopard cats and deer were infected with viruses and pathogens from bites by stray dogs and cats.
“Such infections would result in slower reaction times and increase the risk of being hit by moving vehicles,” he said.
Representatives of conservation groups, including Matou Mountain Natural Humanism Association, called for a review of the TNR program, which they said has not able to reduce the stray population, and instead led to an increase of roaming packs of stray animals in rural areas, as they criticized the Ministry of Agriculture’s Animal Welfare Department.
Department head Cheng Chu-ching (鄭祝菁) said that at most natural parks and preserves there are no TNR programs, but strays found to have attacked wildlife and humans could be put down.
However, some local officials are opposed to euthanasia, Chen said.
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