The Taiwan One Ecology Coalition yesterday urged prompt legislation to ban spring snare traps as it extended an invitation to President William Lai (賴清德) to attend a gathering among people with pets injured by such traps.
The gathering is to be held at the Huajiang Pet Park (華江寵物公園) in New Taipei City’s Banciao District (板橋) on Saturday next week, with people who had their pets injured by spring snare traps joining together to share their stories to advocate for banning the traps.
The coalition yesterday presented an invitation card to a representative from the Presidential Office, inviting Lai to participate in the gathering with his adopted dog, Ban-ban (斑斑), who lost a leg from being caught in a spring snare trap.
Photo: CNA
The group presented postcards written by more than 200 students of Harvard University and MIT to urge Lai to ban the traps were presented.
Animals caught by spring snare traps have their circulation cut off in the trapped limb, leading to tissue death in the limb, Chinese Animal Welfare International Exchange Association executive supervisor Lee Chih-chiang (李志強) said, citing the example of the dog Hei-hei (黑黑), present at the event, whose leg required amputation due to a spring snare trap.
Animals caught in traps might suffer severe tissue damage, or fractured or broken bones even if they manage to escape, Lee said.
Animals unable to escape generally die after seven to 10 agonizing days, he said.
Although the Forestry and Natural Conservation Agency has developed improved traps, which it said would not cause as much harm to animals, they are not much safer than spring snare traps, Lee said.
Tests conducted by the coalition showed that the improved traps’ 12cm jaws can easily trap the toes of adult Formosan black bears or the paws of bear cubs and cause injuries.
Animal rights advocate Yang Hsiu-ling (楊秀玲) said spring snare traps are not traditional indigenous hunting tools, as they had not been used in Taiwan until about a decade ago.
Coalition representative Huang Tai-shan (黃泰山) said the group hoped Lai could exercise his influence as the head of state in pushing legislation to ban spring snare traps, urging the president to ask the Cabinet to put forward amendments to the Animal Protection Act (動物保護法).
That would benefit many wild animals and dogs similar to Ban-ban, Huang said.
The coalition said the spring snare trap ban campaign has bipartisan support, including Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Lin Tai-hua (林岱樺), Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Hsu Chiao-hsin (徐巧芯), DPP Legislator Kuo Yu-ching (郭昱晴) and KMT Legislator Hung Meng-kai (洪孟楷).
However, the draft bill proposed by the ministry has been stalled for about five years in Cabinet meetings and has yet to be sent to the legislature for review, it said.
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