The Executive Yuan today approved amendments to the Animal Protection Act (動物保護法) that would increase penalties for animal abuse and animal abuse resulting in death.
The amendments would increase liability for pet owners, requiring them to report lost pets to their local administration within five days or face penalties for animal abandonment, with fines rising to up to NT$1 million (US$31,650).
For serious cases of physical abuse, the use of firearms or other cruel means resulting in an animal’s death, the penalty would be increased by up to half.
Photo: Tsai Wen-chu, Taipei Times
The amendments proposed by the Ministry of Agriculture are to be submitted to the Legislative Yuan for review.
They would place greater responsibility and liability on owners to prevent pets from being abandoned without a legitimate reason or passed on to government agencies.
Pets sent to animal shelters would have to meet specific conditions or owners would be liable for abandoning them, the amendments state.
Failure to report a lost pet within five days, without legitimate reasons such as injury or hospitalization of the owner, would also be considered abandonment, they state.
The measure would prevent owners from repeatedly claiming that pets are “lost” during animal protection investigations by local authorities, the amendments say.
If the amendments are passed, the penalty for abandoning pets would be increased from NT$30,000 to NT$150,000 to NT$100,000 to NT$1 million.
Criminal penalties for animal abuse would also be increased from up to two years in prison to a maximum of five years, with fines to increase from NT$200,000 to NT$2 million to NT$300,000 to NT$3 million, the amendments state.
Animal abuse resulting in death is at present punishable by a prison sentence of one to five years and a fine of NT$500,000 to NT$5 million, but only in serious instances in which multiple animals are killed.
The amendments would revise the provision so that anyone who kills an animal using a firearm, violence or other cruel means under serious circumstances would have their sentence increased by up to half.
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