Zero euthanasia takes effect today: 160,000 puppies enter the pet market every year. Are owners and the government ready?
Facing a deadlock in animal protection that had lasted more than a decade, more than a year earlier, Jian Zhideng, director of the Xinwu Animal Protection Education Park, called on the government through her death to face up to source management for stray animals, setting off a huge uproar one year later, today, the "zero euthanasia" policy has officially been launched. The competent authority, the Council of Agriculture, specially held a press conference to declare that through building new shelters, promoting diverse adoptions, owner responsibility and mandatory pet registration, euthanasia would officially enter history, and it was hoped that the stray animal problem would be solved.
Regarding the official sunset of the two-year transition period for euthanasia, Council of Agriculture Deputy Minister Huang Jincheng said that the past practice of euthanizing stray animals after twelve days was in fact an "incorrect value." In order to carry out reform, the Council of Agriculture in the past two years subsidized counties and cities to build shelters and amended laws to improve the situation. Zero euthanasia is just a beginning; even if there is public resistance in a few counties and cities, improvement will still be carried out gradually.
But after zero euthanasia is promoted, will stray animals disappear as a result? Chen Yumin, director of the Taiwan Animal Society Research Association, who has studied animal protection issues for many years, pointed out that countries around the world all have stray animal problems to varying degrees. In the end, using "culling" to solve them not only consumes large amounts of funding and manpower, but is also hard to justify morally. Therefore, after broadly establishing "owner responsibility" and a "collective awareness of life," many countries have successively chosen to move toward zero euthanasia; but Taiwan rushed onto the road with only a piece of legislation, and dog registration and sterilization, pet breeding and sales management, and the establishment of owner responsibility are still empty talk. This is fundamentally not a systematic approach to solving the problem, but merely moral satisfaction.
Promoting working dogs and guard dogs, hoping diverse adoption will raise the adoption rate
At the same time, Jiang Wenquan also emphasized that "diverse adoption" would be used to raise the adoption rate, with methods including the following:
1. Working dogs: serving as warning and gatekeeping workers on farms and ranches
2. Guard dogs: cooperating with police stations in remote areas, serving as guards
3. Campus dogs: stray dogs entering campuses, besides guarding, also having a life education function
4. Cooperation with former inmates: life education
5. Foster care system: dogs handed over to civilians for foster care to raise the adoption rate
Veterinarians' association: review the effectiveness of the zero euthanasia policy after half a year
As for how to assess effectiveness after the policy is launched? Chen Peizhong, chairman of the National Federation of Veterinarians' Associations, pointed out that he believes zero euthanasia is a beginning, and he hopes that after the government policy has been implemented for half a year, the government can propose a review to see where improvements can be made. Veterinarians' associations across the country can also enter a part of life education by serving as lecturers, explaining to owners the importance of responsibility, and he only hopes that the incident involving Director Jian will not happen again.
Qiu Yuxuan, a specialist at the Taiwan Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, advised all owners not to abandon their animals, to think carefully before raising animals, not to arbitrarily report and catch stray animals when they see them, to sterilize their own free-roaming dogs, and also to serve as volunteers helping in shelters. Besides encouraging frontline shelter staff, this also gives dogs more opportunities to enjoy freedom.