An animal welfare group said Saturday that stray dogs should not be blamed for the destruction of wildlife, as the main culprits are humans.

Citing an international report on research into wildlife endangerment, the Taiwan Animal Protection Monitor Network said the primary threats to the survival of animals in the wild are poaching and the destruction of their habitat by humans.

In recent years, however, whenever there are reports of protected wildlife killed or harmed by stray dogs, the internet explodes with discussions about putting down the dogs, the non-profit group said in a statement issued on International Homeless Animals Day.

Taiwan imposed a ban on euthanizing animals at public shelters in 2017, and only those that have been diagnosed by veterinarians as terminally ill or infected with contagious diseases can be put down.

According to the animal welfare group, recent data from the Council of Agriculture (COA) showed that over the past five years, some 3,718 wild animals have been rescued in Taiwan, 1,633 of them with injuries.

Among the 1,633 injured animals, 908 had been hurt in wildlife-vehicle collisions (WVCs), 242 had been caught in traps laid by humans, and 299 had been attacked by another animal, the group said, citing the COA data.

In those attacks by other animals, stray dogs accounted for 190, and while that was the majority in that category, it was actually the cause of less than 20 percent of the total 1,633 injuries, the group said.

This does not mean, however, that the problem of stray dogs should be disregarded, but the solution should be to find homes for them, the group said.

It also called on the government to facilitate a system under which local district and ward chiefs, animal protection volunteers, and public and private animal organizations could team up to catch stray pets, have them neutered or spayed and vaccinated, and then released back onto the streets, in what is known as a trap, neuter, vaccination, return (TNVR) method.

To better protect wildlife, meanwhile, the relevant authorities should integrate their strategies, plans, and resources — an approach that is more likely to produce concrete results in the short term, the group said.

International Homeless Animals Day, which is observed annually on the third Saturday in August, was established in 1992 by the International Society for Animal Rights to spread awareness about pet overpopulation. Since then, through meaningful work by the society, the lives of millions of animals have been saved.

Source: Focus Taiwan News Channel