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.
Twenty-four Republican members of the US House of Representatives yesterday introduced a concurrent resolution calling on the US government to abolish the “one China” policy and restore formal diplomatic relations with Taiwan. Led by US representatives Tom Tiffany and Scott Perry, the resolution calls for not only re-establishing formal relations, but also urges the US Trade Representative to negotiate a free-trade agreement (FTA) with Taiwan and for US officials to advocate for Taiwan’s full membership in the UN and other international organizations. In a news release announcing the resolution, Tiffany, who represents a Wisconsin district, called the “one China” policy “outdated, counterproductive
Actress Barbie Hsu (徐熙媛) has “returned home” to Taiwan, and there are no plans to hold a funeral for the TV star who died in Japan from influenza- induced pneumonia, her family said in a statement Wednesday night. The statement was released after local media outlets reported that Barbie Hsu’s ashes were brought back Taiwan on board a private jet, which arrived at Taipei Songshan Airport around 3 p.m. on Wednesday. To the reporters waiting at the airport, the statement issued by the family read “[we] appreciate friends working in the media for waiting in the cold weather.” “She has safely returned home.
ON PAROLE: The 73-year-old suspect has a criminal record of rape committed when he was serving in the military, as well as robbery and theft, police said The Kaohsiung District Court yesterday approved the detention of a 73-year-old man for allegedly murdering three women. The suspect, surnamed Chang (張), was arrested on Wednesday evening in connection with the death of a 71-year-old woman surnamed Chao (趙). The Kaohsiung City Police Department yesterday also unveiled the identities of two other possible victims in the serial killing case, a 75-year-old woman surnamed Huang (黃), the suspect’s sister-in-law, and a 75-year-old woman surnamed Chang (張), who is not related to the suspect. The case came to light when Chao disappeared after taking the suspect back to his residence on Sunday. Police, upon reviewing CCTV
Johanne Liou (劉喬安), a Taiwanese woman who shot to unwanted fame during the Sunflower movement protests in 2014, was arrested in Boston last month amid US President Donald Trump’s crackdown on illegal immigrants, the Criminal Investigation Bureau (CIB) said yesterday. The arrest of Liou was first made public on the official Web site of US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) on Tuesday. ICE said Liou was apprehended for overstaying her visa. The Boston Field Office’s Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO) had arrested Liou, a “fugitive, criminal alien wanted for embezzlement, fraud and drug crimes in Taiwan,” ICE said. Liou was taken into custody
RSS