Animal rights campaigners yesterday criticized judges for not imposing a harsher punishment on cat killer Chan Ho-yeung (陳皓揚), who was handed a 10-month jail sentence which can be commuted to a fine.
The Taipei District Court on Thursday found the 24-year-old student from Macau guilty of violating the Animal Protection Act (動物保護法) for strangling to death two cats, handing him a 10-month jail sentence and a fine of NT$350,000.
It was the first ruling in the case and it can be appealed.
Chan was convicted of strangling a popular stray cat named “Big Orange” in December last year and another cat, “Ban Ban,” in August.
Chan, a former graduate student at National Taiwan University’s Department of Chemical Engineering, admitted his guilt during the trial, telling the judges: “I have a psychological problem and I could not control the compulsion to kill a cat.”
He requested a lenient sentence, saying that he had learned his lesson.
Animal rights advocates were upset at the court handing down what they described as a lenient punishment, as Chan can pay a NT$600,000 fine in lieu of the 10-month jail sentence.
“How can he learn any lesson, or learn to respect life with a jail term of just a few months?” one netizen wrote.
“Our justice system still treats animals as objects and not as precious lives,” another netizen wrote.
Others called for the prosecutors to appeal the ruling, in the hope that Chan would receive a stiffer punishment and have to serve time in prison.
Wang Hsien-ju (王嫻如), a university lecturer who fed and cared for “Big Orange,” said she was disappointed with the ruling and questioned the fine.
“The lives of those two cats can never be returned. Can a life be brought back by paying money? Any life is important and neither cat was willing to lose its life,” Wang said.
When Wang testified at the trial she had insisted on referring to “Big Orange” as an individual, and not a mere pet.
Lawyer Lu Chiu-yuan (呂秋遠) said he would like to see the Animal Protection Act amended so that heavier punishments could be handed down as a deterrent.
The deliberate killing of an animal should lead to a maximum seven-year jail sentence, Lu said.
“Along with respect for human life, we should also educate people to respect the lives of animals. It is time for the law to be amended,” he said.
DEEPER REVIEW: After receiving 19 hospital reports of suspected food poisoning, the Taipei Department of Health applied for an epidemiological investigation A buffet restaurant in Taipei’s Xinyi District (信義) is to be fined NT$3 million (US$91,233) after it remained opened despite an order to suspend operations following reports that 32 people had been treated for suspected food poisoning, the Taipei Department of Health said yesterday. The health department said it on Tuesday received reports from hospitals of people who had suspected food poisoning symptoms, including nausea, vomiting, stomach pain and diarrhea, after they ate at an INPARADISE (饗饗) branch in Breeze Xinyi on Sunday and Monday. As more than six people who ate at the restaurant sought medical treatment, the department ordered the
A strong continental cold air mass and abundant moisture bringing snow to mountains 3,000m and higher over the past few days are a reminder that more than 60 years ago Taiwan had an outdoor ski resort that gradually disappeared in part due to climate change. On Oct. 24, 2021, the National Development Council posted a series of photographs on Facebook recounting the days when Taiwan had a ski resort on Hehuanshan (合歡山) in Nantou County. More than 60 years ago, when developing a branch of the Central Cross-Island Highway, the government discovered that Hehuanshan, with an elevation of more than 3,100m,
Taiwan’s population last year shrank further and births continued to decline to a yearly low, the Ministry of the Interior announced today. The ministry published the 2024 population demographics statistics, highlighting record lows in births and bringing attention to Taiwan’s aging population. The nation’s population last year stood at 23,400,220, a decrease of 20,222 individuals compared to 2023. Last year, there were 134,856 births, representing a crude birth rate of 5.76 per 1,000 people, a slight decline from 2023’s 135,571 births and 5.81 crude birth rate. This decrease of 715 births resulted in a new record low per the ministry’s data. Since 2016, which saw
SECURITY: To protect the nation’s Internet cables, the navy should use buoys marking waters within 50m of them as a restricted zone, a former navy squadron commander said A Chinese cargo ship repeatedly intruded into Taiwan’s contiguous and sovereign waters for three months before allegedly damaging an undersea Internet cable off Kaohsiung, a Liberty Times (sister paper of the Taipei Times) investigation revealed. Using publicly available information, the Liberty Times was able to reconstruct the Shunxing-39’s movements near Taiwan since Double Ten National Day last year. Taiwanese officials did not respond to the freighter’s intrusions until Friday last week, when the ship, registered in Cameroon and Tanzania, turned off its automatic identification system shortly before damage was inflicted to a key cable linking Taiwan to the rest of
RSS