The Taipei City Animal Protection Office yesterday said it would consider setting up the city’s first public pet cremation furnace following allegations of a backlog of unburnt pet corpses at the Taipei Animal Shelter.
The shelter was commissioned by the Taipei City Government to handle pet cremation services.
Last month, a whistleblower working through Taiwan People’s Party Taipei City Councilor Chen Yu-cheng (陳宥丞) said that pet bodies, mostly cats and dogs, wrapped in plastic bags, were piled in the shelter’s freezer room almost ceiling-high for months.
Photo courtesy of Taipei City Animal Protection Office
The office at the time said that repeated failed bids for cremation services were the main cause.
It has issued another public tender with a budget of NT$728,000, with the contract finally awarded to a bidder at NT$720,000.
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Taipei City Councilor Chen Ping-fu (陳炳甫) yesterday suggested that one of the 12 cremation furnaces slated to be built at the Taipei Huai Ai Funeral Parlor be allocated for pet services.
There are few legal pet funeral homes in Taiwan and the city government has yet to set up a public pet cremation facility, he said.
Piles of pet bodies at the shelter not only reflected the lack of respect for life but could cause further distress to the pets’ owners, who considered the pets their family, he said.
The slogan of the pet-friendly Taipei could be reduced to a joke if the lack of legal pet cremation services continues to encourage inappropriate handling of the matter by illegal operators, he said.
The cooperation platform among Keelung, Taipei, New Taipei City and Taoyuan once discussed the joint construction of a pet crematorium, he said. Nothing came of the project, as “not in my backyard” sentiment stalled the project.
Chen called on the city government to establish a legal, transparent and reliable mechanism for pet cremation in the city, or develop a special zone for pet funerals in cooperation with Keelung, New Taipei and Taoyuan city governments via the platform.
The goal is to ensure that pets can go on their final journey with dignity, he said.
Data from the Ministry of Agriculture’s phone surveys showed that there were about 1.5 million pet dogs and more than 1.3 million pet cats nationwide in 2023.
The Yilan County Government in 2013 began to provide public pet cremation services, the first to do so in Taiwan.
The Taichung City Government last year launched the construction project of a pet life memorial park in the city’s Dajia District (大甲), which is expected to be completed by then end of October as Taiwan’s first public pet life memorial park.
The office yesterday said pet life memorial facilities can be set up in accordance with relevant regulations set by the central government, but it would have to deal with zoning requirements.
The office would explore the feasibility with the Taipei Mortuary Services Office and examine relevant statutes involving land classification, facility usage or funeral services, the office said.
Pet bodies in Taipei are now processed by the contractor that won the bid last month, it said.
Additional reporting by Chang Hsuan-che
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