A former employee of Taoyuan's Department of Agriculture was sentenced to eight months in prison on Tuesday for ordering a hunter to shoot an escaped baboon in March 2023.
The former employee, surnamed Hsu (徐), was found guilty of illegally killing a protected wild animal under the Animal Protection Act by taking advantage of his position as a civil servant, according to the Taoyuan District Court.
Authorities in Taoyuan received reports from March 10, 2023 that a baboon that had escaped from a zoo in Hsinchu's Leofoo Village had been spotted several times in the city's Pingzhen District over around a dozen days.
Photo courtesy of CNA
A task force organized by the local ward chief searched for the baboon but failed to locate the animal. The Agriculture Department subsequently took over the mission to capture the primate from March 23 that year.
On March 27, the escaped baboon was captured in Taoyuan's Yangmei District with the use of a net. However, agricultural department personnel discovered that the animal had been shot in the chest with a shotgun during the operation and was soon pronounced dead.
Taoyuan District Prosecutors Office concluded an investigation in November of the same year and indicated that Hsu, a local government technician, had taken part in the capture and violated regulations on hunting and killing protected wildlife after allegedly telling a hunter contracted by the government, surnamed Lin (林), that he could kill the baboon without official approval.
Lin, who pulled the trigger that fired the fatal shot, was not charged.
At the trial at the Taoyuan District Court on Tuesday, Hsu denied that he had given the order for the hunter to fire. He added that he did not meet Lin during the effort to capture the animal and did not know whether the hunter had been using live rounds.
However, the court said evidence indicated that Hsu knew that Lin and another hunter were carrying lethal home-made hunting rifles, not tranquilizer guns, and that he had earlier instructed the two to shoot the baboon as soon as they spotted it.
The district court handed down the eight-month sentence to Hsu on the grounds that the situation had not been an emergency and there was no reason to order the hunters to shoot the baboon.
The ruling can still be appealed.
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