Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) legislators and animal protection groups yesterday urged the government to establish a specialized animal protection police division to quickly respond to animal cruelty cases.
The call came after a man in his 20s in New Taipei City’s Lujhou District (蘆洲) last week allegedly poured boiling water on his girlfriend’s pet cat after the woman left their rented apartment following a quarrel.
The woman said she received a video showing the man abusing the cat, and immediately called an animal protection group and the police for help, but police officers had to gain approval from her and the landlord before they could break into the apartment.
Photo courtesy of Tsai Pi-ju’s legislative office
Another case of 154 smuggled cats having been euthanized by the Council of Agriculture in accordance with the law also sparked public debate on Saturday.
TPP Legislator Tsai Pi-ju (蔡壁如) and several animal protection group representatives yesterday at a news conference urged the government to establish a specialized animal protection police division to collect evidence and save abused animals in time, and avoid placing additional burden on the police force.
A total of 6,462 animal cruelty cases were reported over the past three years, but the offenders in only 161 of the cases, or 2.5 percent, were punished or fined under the Animal Protection Act (動物保護法), Tsai said.
The nation has only about 200 animal protection inspectors, who receive about 250,000 reports of alleged animal cruelty each year, indicating a serious shortage of animal protection personnel within the government, she said.
Ho Chan-han (何承翰), the chairperson of an environmental conservation organization, said that animal protection advocates sometimes risk being sued when collecting evidence of animal cruelty.
You chieh-ping (尤捷平), secretary-general of an animal protection law research association, said while the National Police Agency has a standard operating procedure for police departments to handle reports of animal cruelty, its implementation depends on whether the police officer who received the report is willing to take the claim seriously.
Taiwan Hedgehog Care Association chairperson Huang Shih-ling (黃士玲) said when the association once reported a case of hedgehog abuse, the police officer who received the call said they could not contact the animal protection department during the weekend, so they had to handle it the following Monday.
TPP Taipei headquarters deputy director Chen Yu-chen (陳宥丞) said that last week’s alleged cat abuse shows that some animal abuse cases are like domestic violence cases, which need to be immediately dealt with to save lives.
Having a specialized animal protection police division could save time and avoid the difficulties presented by cross-agency coordination, Chen said.
He also called for the establishment of a video reporting system so that animal protection advocates can collect evidence promptly and send it to the police.
Tsai said that animal abusers know that the animals feel pain when they hurt them, but use such behavior to emotionally blackmail other people.
Such people could be considered mentally immature and might likely have other mental issues, so social workers should follow up on such cases, Tsai said.
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