Spotting a person feeding an animal one time is not enough to determine ownership, but people who have had long-term contact with a stray dog and have influence over its actions could be considered pet owners, the Ministry of Agriculture said on Friday.
The ministry made the remarks after a woman accumulated more than NT$80,000 in fines from the Chiayi County Livestock Disease Control Center over alleged neglect of a pack of dogs.
The woman, who works at a gas station, allowed the dogs to rest at her work, and occasionally gave them food and water, the center said, adding that her actions constituted “ongoing management” of the dogs and made her their owner.
Photo: Taipei Times
However, dogs’ rights advocates earlier on Friday told a news conference that people should not be punished for caring for dogs that have been abandoned.
Caring for dogs that have been sterilized and returned to their natural habitat does not constitute pet ownership, they said.
Taiwan One Ecology Coalition member Huang Tai-shan (黃泰山) told the news conference that the center fined the woman for “neglecting her responsibility as a pet owner,” but there was no legal basis to do so.
She was fined NT$86,000 for “failing to register the dogs within a month after they were born,” “failing to provide supervision of her dogs in a public space” and “failing to get the dogs vaccinated against rabies every year,” Huang said.
However, the ministry has written that “it might not be appropriate to stipulate that feeding a stray dog constitutes pet ownership,” he said.
Feeding stray dogs should not draw a fine, he said, adding that local governments should handle the matter in line with the central government’s guidance.
Wildlife conservation advocates told a separate event on Friday that people who feed stray dogs should be treated as their owners, as their behavior can cause dogs to form large packs, posing a threat to humans and wildlife.
The ministry should make clear its position on how pet ownership is determined, they said.
Feeding strays creates “hotspots” of dogs, which might attack passers-by or vehicles, they said.
The ministry said the Animal Protection Act (動物保護法) stipulates that pet ownership is determined by whether a management relationship between a person and a dog exists, while a single act of feeding does not.
People can be considered the owner of a dog if they have been feeding it for a long time and allowed it to access private property — such as farmland or places of work — or if they provide a home for it and have influence over its actions, it said.
Draft amendments to the act have been sent to the legislature for review, the ministry said, adding that the proposed changes would increase penalties for pet abandonment, animal abuse and illegal pet sales, as well as give animal welfare officers greater enforcement authority.
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