Dear Uliou:

Your e-mail letter dated June 13, 2003 to President Chen, concerning maltreated stray dogs in Taiwan, is transferred to this department for reply. The R.O.C. government is very concerned about animal welfare including pets, laboratory and economic animals and has made great achievements in recent years（see attachment）.

Regarding “they are captured with iron nooses or starved to death or attacked by bigger and stronger dogs etc. in animal shelters”, it is actually not true in Taiwan. In fact, we don’t permit these situations happen under the supervision of the government or many animal- protection organizations in Taiwan and I wander where you get such bad and incorrect information about this. Establishing an animal protection website which URL is www.animal.coa.gov.tw, we hope to open a window to the international community. We welcome you to reach it and get more recent information about us. The R.O.C. government sincerely welcomes all constructive suggestions from animal-lovers and animal-protection friends. We do realize that the promulgation of “Animal Protection Law” is just the first step for animal protection, and we are moving on to make Taiwan a better world for animals.

If you have any suggestions, please don’t hesitate to let us know. Thank you again and we wish you well.

Sincerely,

Frank H. Chen

Director

Department of Animal Industry

Council of Agriculture

Executive Yuan

R. O. C