Miaoli County Government Press Release: 112/10/03
Li Jun-ping, News Media Division, General Affairs Department: 037-559825
The percentage of native wild animals in Taiwan attacked by stray dogs and cats, such as Leopard cats, has drastically grown in recent years. To improve the situation, the Miaoli County Government held a public hearing and invited the members of the Animal Protection Association to attend, to gather opinions from multiple perspectives for the formulation of a Self-Government Ordinance Draft on Forbidding Local Residents from Feeding Stray Dogs and Cats, with the expectation that the problem will be solved through effective management measures.
Miao County is an important habitat for Leopard cats, an endangered protected species. However, in the past few years, the number of cases where Leopard cats have been invaded by stray dogs has gradually increased. Since 2022, there have been four cases of stray dogs killing Leopard cats. Moreover, there have been other wild animal victims, including 16 Pangolins, 13 Formosan Reeve's muntjacs, 2 Masked palm civets, and 1 Swinhoe’s Pheasant.
Since the sympatric ratio between wild animals such as Leopard cats, Pangolins, and stray dogs reaches 90%, to ensure that Leopard cats and other wild animals have a safe habitat, immediate action is needed to decrease the intrusion of stray dogs.
As per “A Trial-run Project on Specific Habitat Hot Zones to Improve the Intrusion of Stray Dogs on Specific Taiwan Native Wild Animals” of the Department of Animal Welfare, MOA, the man-made food sources in the hot habitat zones must first be eliminated. However, the feeding of stray dogs and cats has not yet been regulated. Hence, the Miaoli County Government is proposing to formulate a Self-Government Ordinance Draft “Forbidding Local Residents from Feeding Stray Dogs and Cats” and will submit it to the Miaoli County Council for review and approval. Once the ordinance is passed, it will be announced and enacted, and related regulations will be formulated to reinforce the management.
Before formulating the draft, Miaoli County Government held a public hearing in the 4-floor conference room on the afternoon of October 3 to gather wide-ranging opinions for specific management directions. Magistrate Chung Tung-chin presided over the hearing and invited the Undersecretary of the Ministry of Agriculture (MOA) Du Wen-zhen, the General Affairs Department of Miaoli County Government, the Water Resources Department, the Police Bureau, the Environmental Protection Bureau, the Agriculture Department, the Leopard Cat Association of Taiwan, the Miaoli Nature Ecology Society, the Love Dog Halfway Association, the Love Cat Protection Association, the Miaoli Friendly Dogs & Cats Association, the community development associations in Tongxiao, Zhuolan, and Tongluo, as well as Miaoli County councilors Zeng Wen-xue, Yu Wen-zhong, Chen Pin-an, Zhang Gu-li, Li Shang-an, and Zeng Mei-lu to attend the hearing.
Mr. Huang Tai-shan from the Friendly Dogs & Cats Association stated that the Magistrate or the Mayor of other counties or cities is rarely seen attending these types of meetings. He truly appreciated Magistrate Chung Tung-chin attending and presiding over the hearing in person.
During the hearing, each animal protection association gave their opinion and advice enthusiastically. Magistrate Chung Tung-chin also communicated and exchanged opinions with the representatives. He also stated that the hot zones in the 23 townships of Miaoli County as well as those of Taichung City and Nantou County will be regulated to be the trial areas as per the “A Trial-run Project on Specific Habitat Hot Zones to Improve the Intrusion of Stray Dogs on Specific Taiwan Native Wild Animals” formulated by the Ministry of Agriculture.
Chen Shu-yi, the Director of the Agriculture Department stated that the opinions gathered at the hearing would be integrated to further formulate regulations. On the other hand, the name of the Self-Government Ordinance would be revised. In the future, the Miaoli County Government will also invite the residents who feed the stray dogs in hot zones to cooperate with the government to relocate the stray dogs and cats. Regarding the future shelters for the relocation of stray animals, it’s also required to negotiate with the township offices if the closed dumping ground can be used to establish an animal shelter. The Miaoli County Government also hopes that the central government will subsidize the necessary funds.