Thu, Dec 18, 2025 page3

• Prosecutors appeal acquittal after black bears killed

  • Staff writer, with CNA
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  The Pingtung District Prosecutors’ Office yesterday appealed the acquittal of nine indigenous men from Pingtung County’s Labuwan Tribe in connection with the killing of four Formosan black bears and other endangered animals.

  The nine men, who were charged with contravening the Wildlife Conservation Act (野生動物保育法) over the killings between 2020 and 2022, were on Nov. 26 acquitted by the Pingtung District Court, which cited Article 21-1 of the act exempting indigenous people from penalties for hunting or killing wildlife for “non-profit personal use.”

  The clause should not be used to shield the willful killing of wildlife, prosecutors said in a statement.

  

  The Pingtung District Prosecutors’ Office displays dead black bears and other protected species seized in the county’s Dawu village in an undated photograph.

  Photo courtesy of the Pingtung District Prosecutors’ Office

  Indigenous hunting rights are legally protected only when exercised in accordance with traditional tribal culture, and should not be used as a blanket exemption allowing the killing of animals for entertainment solely on the basis of indigenous status, they said.

  One of the suspects shot a bear while gathering herbs, while five men surrounded and shot a second bear, and a third bear was caught in a snare and shot three times, a statement from the indictment in April 2023 said.

  In the fourth incident, a bear was shot, after which two men carried its body on a motorcycle while a third filmed them laughing and handling the carcass, which was later hung at the entrance of a residence in the village, the statement said.

  The incidents took place 16km, 16km, 4.2km and 0.4km from the village where the men lived and therefore did not constitute intrusions into a residential area, it said.

  In yesterday’s statement, prosecutors said that the incidents showed a lack of respect for life and involved cruelty rather than cultural practice.

  Some of the incidents occurred during the tribe’s “root-seeking activity,” a period when hunting is prohibited, yet the defendants still took firearms into the mountains to hunt, an act that contravened their own tribal rules and which could not be considered part of traditional culture, prosecutors said.

  Within three years, the nine men killed four bears, five Formosan Sambar Deer and three Formosan Serow, all of which are protected or endangered species, exceeding any reasonable definition of maintaining survival and traditional rituals, prosecutors said.

  The ruling failed to distinguish between “personal illicit behavior” and “collective cultural practice,” which was not only a misjudgment, but harmful to indigenous people truly following hunting rules, prosecutors said.

  The appeal aims to correct the mistake and clarify the line between cultural hunting rights and conservation, they said.

  Mai Yung-cheng (麥庸正), the village chief and one of the defendants, said that he respected the decision, adding that hunting culture is embedded in the villagers’ major life rituals, and they do not selectively kill certain species or kill wantonly.
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