The manufacture and use of animal traps that mutilate their catch should be banned via legal amendments, animal protection groups said yesterday.
Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) Legislator Tsai Pi-ru (蔡壁如) also urged the government to make efforts to prevent further mutilation of animals that occurs every day.
Animal Care Trust (ACT) secretary-general Hsu Juo-ching (徐若菁) said the group often found animals bloodied by traps during investigative missions, adding that the number of stray dogs on Yangmingshan (陽明山) with fewer than four functioning legs is proof of the dangers of such traps.
Photo: Tien Yu-hua, Taipei Times
These traps are used to keep animals away from farms, but are ineffective, Hsu said, adding that farmers should adopt more humane methods of protecting their land.
A child could step into a boar trap and be hung from a tree, which would make Taiwanese think twice about such traps, ACT founder Sean McCormack said.
Government measures to modify trap designs to reduce their harm cannot be enforced due to legal loopholes, Taiwan Animal Protection Monitor Network secretary-general Ho Tsung-hsun (何宗勳) said.
Ho also urged the Executive Yuan to review the Forestry Bureau’s proposed amendments to Article 21 of the Wildlife Conservation Act (野生動物保護法), which were submitted a year ago and would ban the use of all traps.
New Power Party (NPP) Chairwoman Chen Jiau-hua (陳椒華) said that traps permanently maim animals, and the government should either limit the legal uses of such devices or ban them completely.
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Hung Meng-kai (洪孟楷) said that if people would not tolerate humans being caught in these types of traps, they have no right to use them on animals.
Either people should be licensed to use these traps, or their use should be reviewed on a case-by-case basis, he said.
Separately, Forestry Bureau staff demonstrated redesigned animal traps, which allow for adjustable diameters and pressure plates, preventing bears and leopard cats from activating the traps.
The new traps are designed to meet farmers’ needs to deter animals, and old traps should be traded in for the new model, bureau staff said.
National Kaohsiung University of Science and Technology (NKUST) yesterday promised it would increase oversight of use of Chinese in course materials, following a social media outcry over instances of simplified Chinese characters being used, including in a final exam. People on Threads wrote that simplified Chinese characters were used on a final exam and in a textbook for a translation course at the university, while the business card of a professor bore the words: “Taiwan Province, China.” Photographs of the exam, the textbook and the business card were posted with the comments. NKUST said that other members of the faculty did not see
The Taipei City Government yesterday said contractors organizing its New Year’s Eve celebrations would be held responsible after a jumbo screen played a Beijing-ran television channel near the event’s end. An image showing China Central Television (CCTV) Channel 3 being displayed was posted on the social media platform Threads, sparking an outcry on the Internet over Beijing’s alleged political infiltration of the municipal government. A Taipei Department of Information and Tourism spokesman said event workers had made a “grave mistake” and that the Television Broadcasts Satellite (TVBS) group had the contract to operate the screens. The city would apply contractual penalties on TVBS
A new board game set against the backdrop of armed conflict around Taiwan is to be released next month, amid renewed threats from Beijing, inviting players to participate in an imaginary Chinese invasion 20 years from now. China has ramped up military activity close to Taiwan in the past few years, including massing naval forces around the nation. The game, titled 2045, tasks players with navigating the troubles of war using colorful action cards and role-playing as characters involved in operations 10 days before a fictional Chinese invasion of Taiwan. That includes members of the armed forces, Chinese sleeper agents and pro-China politicians
The lowest temperature in a low-lying area recorded early yesterday morning was in Miaoli County’s Gongguan Township (公館), at 6.8°C, due to a strong cold air mass and the effect of radiative cooling, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. In other areas, Chiayi’s East District (東區) recorded a low of 8.2°C and Yunlin County’s Huwei Township (虎尾) recorded 8.5°C, CWA data showed. The cold air mass was at its strongest from Saturday night to the early hours of yesterday. It brought temperatures down to 9°C to 11°C in areas across the nation and the outlying Kinmen and Lienchiang (Matsu) counties,
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