More than half of 26 randomly selected toys for pets sold in Taipei and New Taipei City were not properly labeled, while seven presented a choking hazard, the Consumers’ Foundation said yesterday, as it urged the government to set standards for pet toys.
To get an idea of the safety of pet toys, which are not regulated by specific laws in Taiwan, the foundation in December randomly selected 26 toys, including rubber balls, cat teaser wands and dental chew toys, from several pet shops to inspect.
The toys were examined to see if they conformed to the Commodity Labeling Act (商品標示法), as well as national standards for the safety of children’s toys and children’s products, Consumers’ Foundation chairman Terry Huang (黃怡騰) told a news conference in Taipei.
Photo: CNA
The foundation found that 16 of the toys did not properly identify the name of the toy and its materials, or provide information on when, where and by which company it was manufactured.
This included five toys that did not have any labeling at all, the foundation said in its report.
Under the Commodity Labeling Act, local governments should inform manufacturers when they fail to properly label their products and set a deadline for manufacturers to rectify the issue.
Failure to do so can result in repeated fines of NT$20,000 to NT$200,000.
There were also seven toys that presented a choking hazard, while a toy shaped like a bone was found to have excessive amounts of plasticizers, the report said.
Nearly a quarter of the toy’s composition (22.9 percent) was diisononyl phthalate, well above the national standard for children’s toys, which allows no more than a 0.1 percent concentration of eight types of plasticizers combined, the report said.
A similar report produced by the foundation in 2016 found that only 12 percent (three out of 25) of pet toy products had proper labeling, compared with 38.5 percent (10 out of 26) in the new report, Huang said.
This shows that pet toy manufacturers still are not familiar with labeling regulations, which needs to be improved immediately, Huang said.
He also called on the government to establish standards for pet toys, as statistics show that the number of pets in Taiwan could reach a record high 3 million this year.
The foundation advised owners to choose toys that are the right size for their pets to prevent choking and to stop using toys when they begin to fall apart.
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