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February 5th, 2017 
Awake Goy 
nsnbc : A revision of Taiwan’s Animal Protection Act came into effect on Saturday, making Taiwan the second Asian country after India to adopt a nationwide ban on euthanasia for stray or runaway animals. The adoption of the legislation came after a debate prompted by the documentary “Twelve Nights”.
Taiwanese government authorities have long campaigned for several measures to reduce the number of stray and runaway pet animals. Many of them end up in shelters without being identified and returned to their owner, or without ever being picked up.
Programs were aimed at increasing public awareness, and low cost microchipping of pet animals for no more than about NT$200, or US$6.4. However less than 60 percent of pet animals are being microchipped and even fewer are sprayed or neutered to avoid “unintended” offspring.
Animal shelters have until Saturday been allowed to euthanize pet animals if nobody would come to pick them up. Official government data show that the public shelters were either at 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.
While many animal rights activists welcomed the ban on euthanasia for the abandoned animals, there ale also critics, including some animal rights activists. Huang Qing-rong the Secretary-General of the Animal Protection Association of the Republic of China, was quoted by 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.
Others suggest that microchipping, or alternatively a tattoo with an ID number for per animals should be made mandatory. Such a measure, supplemented with the establishment of an inexpensive database that can be accessed by shelters could help identify the owners. It could then be made mandatory that pet owners must cover the cost for their pet’s stay at the shelter.
However, with or without criticism , the ban has come into effect and is being implemented. The chief of the animal protection section of the Council of Agriculture, Chiang Wen-chuan told the press that the local governments have been ordered to ensure a comfortable environment at the public shelters and stop accepting more animals if they reach maximum capacity.
Chiang Wen-chuan added that today, the majority of public shelters would charge pet owners whose pets end up in the shelters at the amount from a few thousands to more than ten thousands in local currency anyway.
The problem is, of course, that many who haven’t microchipped or tattooed their pet for a few coins abandon their pet animals because of the price for the shelter. Making ID tattoos (for those who don’t like chips) mandatory could mitigate that problem.
Xia Liang-Zhou, retired professor of animal science at National Pingtung University of Science and Technology advised the public shelters to euthanize dogs with canine distemper, gastroenteritis and other highly contagious illnesses to prevent mass mortality in the shelters, and urged the authorities to proactively promote microchipping to control the stray animal population.
The adoption of the ban on euthanasia was prompted by a vigorous debate triggered by the Taiwanese documentary movie “Twelve Nights”. The documentary showed the plight and true face of the fate of Taiwan’s homeless dogs; especially dogs who haven’t been microchipped or dogs who can’t otherwise be identified.
The film and the debate prompted the passage of a revision to the Animal Protection Act in January 2015, which deleted a clause that permitted the killing of animals held in animal shelters if they remain unclaimed or unadopted for more than 12 days after a notice or public announcement. As of Satuday February 4, 2017 only the animals diagnosed with highly contagious and incurable diseases are allowed to undergo euthanasia. Persons in Taiwan who are interested in adopting a pet like a dog or a cat from a shelter are encouraged to use Taiwan’s national online platform to contact shelters or other relevant authorities.
CH/L – nsnbc 04.02.2017
Please watch “Twelve Nights – 十二夜” here via the documentary’s official YouTube channel.
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Source Article from https://nsnbc.me/2017/02/04/taiwan-banned-animal-euthanasia-after-documentary-twelve-nights/
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