The China Post
Date: June 17, 2016
By: Enru Lin
TAIPEI, Taiwan — The family dog could someday be eligible for household registration.
The government on Wednesday said it was developing a scheme to add companion animals to
n this file photo, a stray dog waits for adoption at Taipei Animal Shelter in Neihu District. (The China Post news staff)
the national household registry as a way to discourage pet abandonment.
“We propose including pets in the household registry and conducting a census every few years,” Agriculture Minister Tsao Chi-hung (曹啟鴻) told lawmakers of the Economics Committee.
A complete pet record would encourage responsible animal ownership and enable tougher enforcement of laws against pet abandonment — a punishable offense that today is hard to prove, he said.
Tsao was reporting on the Council of Agriculture’s (COA) preparation for a national no-kill policy for captured strays.
The policy has been adopted already at some public shelters and comes into effect nationwide next February.
A Push to Spay and Neuter
The COA has been working with local governments to control animal populations in humane ways, Tsao said.
Local governments trapped, neutered and returned a combined 110,000 cats and dogs last year, up from 78,000 in 2014, according to COA statistics. [FULL STORY]
