- Staff writer, with CNA
Eight groups yesterday called on the government to take action on 10 animal welfare issues, including banning wild boar snares and pigeon racing at sea.
“These 10 issues largely do not require new legislation or amendments and can be addressed through administrative orders alone,” Taiwan Animal Protection Monitor Network secretary-general Ho Tsung-hsun (何宗勳) told a news conference in Taipei.
The government’s actions have been “extremely limited,” despite years of advocacy from animal rights groups for better animal welfare policies and their enforcement, Ho said.
Animal traps are pictured in New Taipei City in an undated photograph.
Photo courtesy of the New Taipei City Animal Protection and Health Inspection Office
Among the 10 key issues, the eight groups highlighted banning wild boar snares — formally known as compression spring snare traps, which tighten around an animal’s limb with great force when triggered.
Jerry Ko (柯元傑), convener of the Taiwan Animal Protection Monitor Network’s anti-metal traps group, said that the Central Election Commission (CEC) rejected the group’s proposal last year for a referendum on a complete ban on wild boar snares, citing concerns that it would affect the hunting rights of indigenous people and the needs of farmers in preventing crop damage caused by wild animals.
“The wild boar snare is a hunting tool that was introduced from Japan in the past decade… It is not a traditional hunting tool that indigenous people have used for thousands of years,” Ko said.
There are alternatives for preventing crop damage, citing the use of electric fences in Japan, Ko said, adding that the fences are a “humane way to coexist with wildlife.”
Showing images of animals severely injured by wild boar snares, he said that despite authorities promoting an improved snare over the past five years, the number of protected species killed has not decreased.
Six Formosan black bears and five leopard cats have died after being ensared in such devices, Ko said.
Taiwan Bird Rescue Association member Mars Chen (陳彥騰) said that the CEC also rejected a proposal for a referendum to ban pigeon racing at sea.
Chen called the commission’s reasoning “evasive” and “unconvincing.”
The CEC rejected the proposal in part because of its claim that “the true intent of the proposal cannot be understood from the content,” as stipulated in the Referendum Act (公民投票法).
“Amid decades of neglect by administrative agencies, millions — perhaps tens of millions — of racing pigeons have perished at sea,” Chen said, adding that pigeon racing on the high seas has a survival rate of just 1 to 2 percent.
The groups also called for action on eight other issues, including bolstered regulations covering animal performances, ending chaining and caging of dogs, and regulating the breeding and sale of pets other than dogs and cats.
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