Taiwan to become the 2nd country in Asia after India that implements ‘zero euthanasia’ of stray animals
Focus Taiwan
Date: 2017/02/04
By Sophia Yang,Taiwan News, Staff Writer
TAIPEI (Taiwan News) – A revision to the Animal Protection Act that bans stray animal euthanasia went
Image courtesy of Nanliao Shelter, Hsinchu (Flickr)
into effect nationwide Saturday. Some animal rights activists express concerns over the lack of disease controls and of supporting measures to cope with overcapacity in animal shelters as people continue abandoning pets.
According to the Chinese-language Liberty Times, the local government data show that the public shelters were either way over capacity or over capacity at the end of January. The public shelters in Taipei City, Tainan City, Taoyuan City, Yilan County, Pingtung County, and Hsinchu City have exceeded capacity.
Despite the increased public awareness and extremely low cost of microchipping (less than NT$200, or US$6.4, in Taiwan), the implementation rate remains low at 60 percent, while the rate of spaying/neutering is even lower.
Huang Qing-rong (黃慶榮), secretary-general of the Animal Protection Association of the Republic of China, was quoted by other local media as saying that it has yet to be the right timing to implement the new law given the country’s low pet sterilization rate. Huang worried that the new law would give some irresponsible pet owners some peace of mind or a slight sense of guilt to abandon pets as they won’t be subject to euthanasia and that will lead to the increase in the homeless animal population. [FULL STORY]
