Following the repeated petitions of farmers, the Council of Agriculture (COA) last week announced that protected Formosan macaques damaging crops may be destroyed by “humane methods.”
However, the policy drew criticism, as some farmers said they did not understand what methods of extermination were included under the criteria.
There is no standard definition of “humane methods,” former Taitung County Agriculture Bureau director Wu Ching-jung (吳慶榮) said.
Photo: Huang Hsu-lei, Taipei Times
“Farmers can only make their own interpretation by killing macaques as quickly and painlessly as possible,” Wu said.
Taitung County’s Yanping Township (延平) official Hu Wu-jen (胡武仁) defined the criteria as “killed by one clean shot.”
However, COA Forestry Bureau division Director Kuan Li-hao (管立豪) said he doubted the efficiency of this method at suppressing activity of the rising population of macaques in the area’s surrounding mountain farms.
Under the Wildlife Conservation Act (野生動物保育法), only farmers whose crops, poultry or livestock are damaged by protected wildlife are allowed to destroy animals after they inform local governments of their plans and receive approval.
“Farmers must have legal guns to shoot pests, but it is impossible for a farmer to own a legal gun under normal circumstances,” Kuan said.
The Formosan macaque — also known as the Formosan rock monkey — a species indigenous to Taiwan, once faced extinction from overhunting before the wildlife protection act became law in 1989, at which time the macaque was listed as “precious and rare” and placed under strict protection, the COA said.
By 2009, the monkey population had surged to about 250,000, leading the council to downgrade the Formosan macaques status to “conserved.”
However, the primate has become one of the most damaging pests to agriculture over the past few years, the COA was quoted by local media outlets as saying.
In an attempt to assuage farmers’ anger, the council has proposed a three-point plan to clear monkeys from farmland which entails organizing a monkey hazard-prevention team, guiding farmers to build fences, and capturing, sterilizing and “removing” troublesome monkeys, the COA said.
The council notice issuing what has been described as a “death penalty” on monkeys which damage agriculture has drawn criticism from Animal Protection Association secretary-general Huang Ching-jung (黃清榮).
Huang said that killing the primates just because of crop losses would make the nation “an international joke.”
Lin Chin-fu (林金福), nicknamed the “father of Formosan macaques” for his long-term contribution to the understanding and conservation of the species, is also against the COA’s policy.
Criticizing the council’s method as “confusing the result for the cause,” Lin said that it is humans that are encroaching on the monkeys’ habitat.
Lin suggested mapping out certain areas where oranges could be grown that monkeys would be allowed to consume.
That way, he said, monkeys would not trespass onto farmers’ fields and damage crops.
Additional reporting by Huang Shu-li
‘DENIAL DEFENSE’: The US would increase its military presence with uncrewed ships, and submarines, while boosting defense in the Indo-Pacific, a Pete Hegseth memo said The US is reorienting its military strategy to focus primarily on deterring a potential Chinese invasion of Taiwan, a memo signed by US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth showed. The memo also called on Taiwan to increase its defense spending. The document, known as the “Interim National Defense Strategic Guidance,” was distributed this month and detailed the national defense plans of US President Donald Trump’s administration, an article in the Washington Post said on Saturday. It outlines how the US can prepare for a potential war with China and defend itself from threats in the “near abroad,” including Greenland and the Panama
The High Prosecutors’ Office yesterday withdrew an appeal against the acquittal of a former bank manager 22 years after his death, marking Taiwan’s first instance of prosecutors rendering posthumous justice to a wrongfully convicted defendant. Chu Ching-en (諸慶恩) — formerly a manager at the Taipei branch of BNP Paribas — was in 1999 accused by Weng Mao-chung (翁茂鍾), then-president of Chia Her Industrial Co, of forging a request for a fixed deposit of US$10 million by I-Hwa Industrial Co, a subsidiary of Chia Her, which was used as collateral. Chu was ruled not guilty in the first trial, but was found guilty
A wild live dugong was found in Taiwan for the first time in 88 years, after it was accidentally caught by a fisher’s net on Tuesday in Yilan County’s Fenniaolin (粉鳥林). This is the first sighting of the species in Taiwan since 1937, having already been considered “extinct” in the country and considered as “vulnerable” by the International Union for Conservation of Nature. A fisher surnamed Chen (陳) went to Fenniaolin to collect the fish in his netting, but instead caught a 3m long, 500kg dugong. The fisher released the animal back into the wild, not realizing it was an endangered species at
DEADLOCK: As the commission is unable to forum a quorum to review license renewal applications, the channel operators are not at fault and can air past their license date The National Communications Commission (NCC) yesterday said that the Public Television Service (PTS) and 36 other television and radio broadcasters could continue airing, despite the commission’s inability to meet a quorum to review their license renewal applications. The licenses of PTS and the other channels are set to expire between this month and June. The National Communications Commission Organization Act (國家通訊傳播委員會組織法) stipulates that the commission must meet the mandated quorum of four to hold a valid meeting. The seven-member commission currently has only three commissioners. “We have informed the channel operators of the progress we have made in reviewing their license renewal applications, and