The Taipei City Government will step up efforts to prevent stores from selling gin traps to help protect animals.
To prevent animals from being injured or maimed by gin traps — spring-loaded metal clamps with sharp teeth — Taipei City’s Department of Economic Development said it would issue notifications to all hardware stores around the city urging them stop selling the traps.
The Animal Protection Act (動物保護法) banned the use of the devices in 1998, but did not ban the manufacture or sale of the traps. Under the act, people who trap animals with gin traps face a fine of between NT$60,000 and NT$300,000.
The traps, which cost between NT$35 and NT$50, are still sometimes used on farmland, mountainous areas and even in national parks, putting animals and people who stray from hiking trails at risk.
Yen I-feng (嚴一峰), director of the Taipei Municipal Institute for Animal Health, said the institute issued notices last month to 484 hardware stores urging them to stop selling the devices.
The institute will issue notifications to the remaining 697 hardware stores near mountainous areas, where the traps are often found, to promote the ban of gin trap sales, he said.
Yen said the city government was also redrafting regulations to control the manufacture and sale of gin traps. Stores that sell the traps will be fined after the regulations are revised, he said.
According to Yen, the institute dealt with 16 cases of animals being harmed by gin traps last year. Most of the trapped animals were pet dogs.
Yen said the institute would also try to cooperate with animal protection groups within a month to patrol mountainous areas and parks and dispose of any traps in the areas.
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