Taiwan Euthanizes 154 Cats Found in Smuggling Bust

Taiwan’s coast guard recently found 154 cats in a smuggling bust after intercepting

a fishing vessel from China. The Guardian reported that authorities recently decided to euthanize all 154 cats and there has been outrage over how they to handled the case. 

After screening the crew for Covid, the lifeguards found 62 cages containing cats of all kinds of breeds. This included more expensive breeds like Russian Blue, Ragdoll, Persian American Shorthair, and British Shorthair breeds. The cats were estimated to be valued at $10 million Taiwanese dollars (the equivalent of $357,504 US). The cats were found on Thursday, and by Saturday had all been euthanized without further consideration.

Their reasoning was that there was no way to know where the cats had come from and thus, created a biosecurity risk. However, their excuse did not pass with the locals and animal rights groups, who protested in grief over the horrific decision.

This incident has drawn attention to the need for more humane laws in the case of unknown animals and biosecurity. There was no obvious reason why the cats couldn’t have been temporarily quarantined, which sparked the most outrage.

Taiwan is a pet-loving place where many people own pets and take loving care of them. Hence killing 154 cats was completely unnecessary, and even the locals cannot believe that it was allowed. One commenter said, “Does Taiwan have no quarantine capability? Do Taiwanese kill innocent cats like this?’’

https://www.onegreenplanet.org/animalsandnature/taiwan-euthanizes-154-cats-found-in-smuggling-bust/