Taiwan is about to ban the breeding and import of pit bulls from March 1. There has been a wave of abandoned pit bulls in various places. Some pit bulls are even stray on the streets, which may cause public safety problems.
Taipei, Taiwan (Merxwire) – In recent years in Taiwan, the number of incidents of pit bulls hurting people has increased, which has made the public begin to pay attention to the aggression of pit bulls. It is advocated that pit bulls should be accompanied by adults when going out, wear a rope under 1.5 meters, and wear a muzzle to prevent biting, etc., to strengthen protective measures.
According to the announcement, from March 1, 2022, Taiwan will prohibit the breeding or import of pit bulls, including the American pit bull and the Staffordshire Bull Terrier, both of which are within the scope of regulation. Owners who have raised pit bulls should register their pets and mark the breed as pit bulls before February 28, 2023 to complete the reference procedures.
But before the regulation took effect, there was a wave of pit bull abandonment everywhere. Some of the abandoned pit bulls were sent to animal shelters, while others were wandering the streets. The number of stray pit bull cases received by the Animal Protection Office in Tainan City increased; the Animal Protection Office in Taoyuan City found mixed-breed stray pit bulls on the streets; and Hsinchu County saw an incident where a stray pit bull killed a pet cat.
If pit bulls stray on the street, they may attack people other stray animals and even enter people’s homes and attack pets. For example, in the Hsinchu area, stray pit bulls entered people’s homes and killed pet cats. Three watchdogs were killed by a stray pit bull in an orchard in the Chiayi area. These are just things that have happened in recent months.
Because Taiwan implements the zero euthanasia policy, and pit bulls need to be housed separately, it causes a lot of pressure and burden on shelters. If pit bulls haven’t been adopted by February 28, they’ll need to spend their entire lives in shelters.
In August last year, the Council of Agriculture, Executive Yuan announced that there were about 155,869 stray animals in Taiwan in 2020, an increase of 6.19% over 2018. Although people advocate “Adopt! Don’t shop”, the number of stray animals is still increasing, and the public needs to pay attention.
On the other hand, according to statistics from the Ministry of the Interior, from January to September last year, the number of newborns was about 112,000, but the number of newly registered cats and dogs in Taiwan has exceeded 160,000 in the same period. Animals outnumber newborn babies, making animal policy even more important.