The Council of Agriculture (COA) is considering banning the ownership, breeding and trading of pit bulls, following reports of a pit bull attacking another dog, it said on Wednesday.
The council has discussed a potential ban on purebred and mixed breed pit bulls with local governments and representatives of the pet industry, Department of Animal Industry Deputy Director Chiang Wen-chuan (江文全) said.
An announcement previewing the policy, which would ban the import, export, ownership and breeding of the dogs, formally known as American pit bull terriers, could come as soon as late this month, Chiang said.
Photo: Peng Chien-li, Taipei Times
If the plan is implemented, owners would be allowed to keep their pets, but would be required to register them with the government, he said.
Statistics from the council’s national pet registry show that about 1,000 pit bulls are kept as pets in Taiwan, he said.
The announcement of the potential ban follows news coverage of an incident on Sunday night, when an unleashed pit bull fatally attacked a poodle at Taipei Expo Park in Zhongshan District (中山).
In a statement to the Taipei Animal Protection Office, the pit bull’s owner said that his pet had never attacked another dog before, but added that he usually walked his pet at night to prevent it from being provoked by another dog.
The Taipei Animal Protection Office said the owner would be fined between NT$30,000 and NT$150,000 for failing to leash and muzzle a dog listed as belonging to an “aggressive” breed under Article 20 of the Animal Protection Act (動物保護法).
The office lists six types of dogs as aggressive: pit bulls, Tosas, Neapolitan mastiffs, Brazilian mastiffs, Dogos Argentino and Molossian hounds, office Director Wu Chin-an (吳晉安) said.
These types of dogs can only be walked in public by an adult owner and must be properly leashed and muzzled, Wu said, adding that people can report those who breach these rules in Taipei by calling the 1999 citizens hotline.
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