A Taichung city councilor and animal rights groups yesterday slammed the Taichung City Government for its inaction over an animal shelter incident earlier this week that involved dogs eating the bodies of other dogs.
Dogs kept in the animal shelter in Taichung were found on Sunday to be feeding on the carcasses of other dogs out of hunger, Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Taichung City Councilor Tseng Chao-jung (
Tseng said that the incident was indicative of the lack of management at the shelter.
Tseng noted that the Environmental Protection Agency personnel in Taichung were under immense pressure to capture stray dogs to meet performance records.
According to the city's regulations, they must catch 45 dogs a day, which adds up to over a thousand dogs per month, said Huang Pi-chu (黃璧珠), head of the Taichung Universal Animal Protection Association.
Dogs caught by the agency are sent to the Taichung City Animal Health Inspection Center, Tseng said. However, there is not enough room at the animal shelter to accommodate all the strays.
Huang said that city regulations mandate that a dog brought to the shelter has to be treated for diseases and has a seven-day window for adoption.
However, owing to the large number of dogs at the shelter, not only did they not have enough food to eat, most were put to sleep before the seven-day period was over, Huang said.
Wu Lung-tai (
Animal rights advocate Chen Chien-chung (
Chen made the remarks in reference to China's offer of a pair of pandas to Taiwan following then-chairman of the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Lien Chan's (
While the Taiwanese government has not accepted the offer, both the Taipei and Taichung city governments have actively sought to house the pandas.
Both Tseng and Huang said they were displeased with the environmental department's attitude and that changes have not been made so far.
Tseng said that the shelter remained unkempt and local animal rights activists are gathering next Thursday to protest.
Huang said that the city did not have an especially large number of stray dogs compared with other cities in the country.
"The dogcatchers just capture every dog they see on the street, even house pets," she said.
"They say they only take the larger ones for safety reasons, but when we went to to the shelter, we saw only one dog that was over 15kg," she added.
Tseng said the only way to improve the situation is to have better regulations governing stray dogs.
The central and local governments should promote the usage of implanted identification chips for pets, he said.
The public also need to be taught not to abandon their pets, Tseng said.
CAUTION: Based on intelligence from the nation’s security agencies, MOFA has cautioned Taiwanese travelers about heightened safety risks in China-friendly countries The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) yesterday urged Taiwanese to be aware of their safety when traveling abroad, especially in countries that are friendly to China. China in June last year issued 22 guidelines that allow its courts to try in absentia and sentence to death so-called “diehard” Taiwanese independence activists, even though Chinese courts have no jurisdiction in Taiwan. Late last month, a senior Chinese official gave closed-door instructions to state security units to implement the guidelines in countries friendly to China, a government memo and a senior Taiwan security official said, based on information gathered by Taiwan’s intelligence agency. The
The National Immigration Agency (NIA) said yesterday that it will revoke the dependent-based residence permit of a Chinese social media influencer who reportedly “openly advocated for [China’s] unification through military force” with Taiwan. The Chinese national, identified by her surname Liu (劉), will have her residence permit revoked in accordance with Article 14 of the “Measures for the permission of family- based residence, long-term residence and settlement of people from the Mainland Area in the Taiwan Area,” the NIA said in a news release. The agency explained it received reports that Liu made “unifying Taiwan through military force” statements on her online
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC), the world’s largest contract chipmaker, said yesterday that it is looking to hire 8,000 people this year, at a time when the tech giant is expanding production capacity to maintain its lead over competitors. To attract talent, TSMC would launch a large-scale recruitment campaign on campuses across Taiwan, where a newly recruited engineer with a master’s degree could expect to receive an average salary of NT$2.2 million (US$60,912), which is much higher than the 2023 national average of NT$709,000 for those in the same category, according to government statistics. TSMC, which accounted for more than 60 percent
Tung Tzu-hsien (童子賢), a Taiwanese businessman and deputy convener of the nation’s National Climate Change Committee, said yesterday that “electrical power is national power” and nuclear energy is “very important to Taiwan.” Tung made the remarks, suggesting that his views do not align with the country’s current official policy of phasing out nuclear energy, at a forum organized by the Taiwan People’s Party titled “Challenges and Prospects of Taiwan’s AI Industry and Energy Policy.” “Taiwan is currently pursuing industries with high added- value and is developing vigorously, and this all requires electricity,” said the chairman
RSS