Half of Taiwan’s cities and counties lack rescue services for animals that are not cats or dogs, animal rights groups said yesterday, urging the Ministry of Agriculture to allocate more funding to local governments’ animal welfare programs.
The groups, including the Taiwan Animal Protection Monitor Network, Taiwan Bird Rescue Association, Taiwan Rodents Care Association and Taiwan Hedgehog Care Association, spent a year researching the ability of public animal shelters nationwide to rescue and shelter pet birds, rodents and hedgehogs.
The research showed that most city and county animal shelters provide services for cats and dogs as required by the Animal Protection Act (動物保護法), while the other animals, without regulatory protection, could only be helped by non-governmental organizations, Taiwan Animal Protection Monitor Network secretary-general Ho Tsung-hsun (何宗勳) told a news conference.
Photo: Yang Yuan-ting, Taipei Times
The lives and welfare of other animals should be valued and protected as well, he said, adding that the Taiwan Bird Rescue Association received 1,937 cases and the Taiwan Rodents Care Association got 2,005 cases from 2021 to last year.
Among all local animal rights authorities, only half would rescue pets that are not cats or dogs, and only 45 percent could shelter those that were abandoned or mistreated, Ho said.
New Taipei City performed the best among the six major special municipalities in rescuing and sheltering other types of pets, while the Taichung Animal Protection and Health Inspection Office completely lacked such services, Ho said.
Tainan’s and Kaohsiung’s animal rights agencies also provide services for pet birds and pigeons, but not other types of pets, he said.
Among the other cities and counties, Hsinchu City performed best, followed by Miaoli County and Chiayi City, Ho said, adding they even outperformed some of the six major cities.
The research showed that the shelter capacities of local agencies were insufficient and proper standards and guidelines should be established to enhance their capabilities to take in other animals, he said.
The ministry is advised to fund collaborations between governmental and non-governmental sectors, as well as compile owner guidelines for non-cat-or-dog pets.
Department of Animal Welfare official Cheng Chu-ching (鄭祝菁) said that the ministry would fully support local authorities by allocating higher budgets where needed.
While guidelines on keeping mammals that are not cats or dogs such as rodents and rabbits were published on Tuesday, interactive software and videos about owner guidelines would also be made to educate the public, she said.
Cheng also thanked the groups for collaborating with the government in animal rights protection, saying that the collaborations would be expanded to provide complete services.
An essay competition jointly organized by a local writing society and a publisher affiliated with the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) might have contravened the Act Governing Relations Between the People of the Taiwan Area and the Mainland Area (臺灣地區與大陸地區人民關係條例), the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said on Thursday. “In this case, the partner organization is clearly an agency under the CCP’s Fujian Provincial Committee,” MAC Deputy Minister and spokesperson Liang Wen-chieh (梁文傑) said at a news briefing in Taipei. “It also involves bringing Taiwanese students to China with all-expenses-paid arrangements to attend award ceremonies and camps,” Liang said. Those two “characteristics” are typically sufficient
A magnitude 5.9 earthquake that struck about 33km off the coast of Hualien City was the "main shock" in a series of quakes in the area, with aftershocks expected over the next three days, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Prior to the magnitude 5.9 quake shaking most of Taiwan at 6:53pm yesterday, six other earthquakes stronger than a magnitude of 4, starting with a magnitude 5.5 quake at 6:09pm, occurred in the area. CWA Seismological Center Director Wu Chien-fu (吳健富) confirmed that the quakes were all part of the same series and that the magnitude 5.5 temblor was
The Central Weather Administration has issued a heat alert for southeastern Taiwan, warning of temperatures as high as 36°C today, while alerting some coastal areas of strong winds later in the day. Kaohsiung’s Neimen District (內門) and Pingtung County’s Neipu Township (內埔) are under an orange heat alert, which warns of temperatures as high as 36°C for three consecutive days, the CWA said, citing southwest winds. The heat would also extend to Tainan’s Nansi (楠西) and Yujing (玉井) districts, as well as Pingtung’s Gaoshu (高樹), Yanpu (鹽埔) and Majia (瑪家) townships, it said, forecasting highs of up to 36°C in those areas
The brilliant blue waters, thick foliage and bucolic atmosphere on this seemingly idyllic archipelago deep in the Pacific Ocean belie the key role it now plays in a titanic geopolitical struggle. Palau is again on the front line as China, and the US and its allies prepare their forces in an intensifying contest for control over the Asia-Pacific region. The democratic nation of just 17,000 people hosts US-controlled airstrips and soon-to-be-completed radar installations that the US military describes as “critical” to monitoring vast swathes of water and airspace. It is also a key piece of the second island chain, a string of
RSS