The Taichung District Court last week sentenced an undocumented Vietnamese migrant worker to eight years and two months in prison for illegally hunting and selling a stray cat and an endangered leopard cat.
The defendant, Ban Khac Hiep, was convicted of contravening the Firearms, Ammunition and Knives Control Act (槍砲彈藥刀械管制條例) and the Wildlife Conservation Act (野生動物保育法).
Photo: Chen Chien-chih, Taipei Times
He was also fined NT$240,000.
The ruling can be appealed.
Ban absconded from his legal place of work in October 2020 and later made a homemade hunting gun, which he used to hunt wildlife illegally for profit in March and April last year, prosecutors said.
He enlisted the help of an accomplice, Pham Van Cuong, to arrange the sale of the animals, prosecutors said.
On March 13 last year, Ban killed a stray cat and sold it through Pham to a buyer, with the two together reaping NT$1,500 in proceeds.
Ban shot and killed a leopard cat — a protected species in Taiwan — on April 19 last year, and again asked Pham to find a buyer.
The following day, Pham's Vietnamese girlfriend, surnamed Nguyen, delivered the leopard cat carcass to a buyer and collected NT$3,000.
Nguyen later received deferred prosecution, while Pham was sentenced in November last year to one year in prison for contravening the Wildlife Conservation Act.
Police investigating the case attempted to arrest Ban on June 4 last year at a makeshift structure in Taichung's Sinshe District (新社).
Officers said Ban aimed his modified firearm at them and fled while they withdrew to seek backup.
He was later apprehended and indicted.
In its ruling handed down on Wednesday last week, the court said that leopard cats are a rare and protected species in Taiwan, and that Ban showed disregard for animal life by killing and selling both a stray cat and protected wildlife.
The court said the offenses were serious and warranted a substantial sentence.
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