Keeper fined for letting dog ride on top of van
2015/02/07 20:04:57
Taipei, Feb. 7 (CNA) A dog owner has been fined for allowing his dog to stand on top of his small van during a drive in suburban Taipei, despite the family's insistence that the dog rode there voluntarily, police said Saturday.
The Tamsui Police Station said it took action after seeing a photo posted on the Internet of a car with four dogs in the vehicle -- including one that stood on top of it.
The police said they learned about the situation when carrying out their regular monitoring of the Internet, and then located the driver, surnamed Su, and his wife, surnamed Cheng, who denied that they forced the dog to stand on the top of the van.
Cheng said the dog was used to doing that, but she admitted that animal protection officials had warned them about the practice before.
She said that the dog has always held its footing when taking its position on top of the vehicle and that she and her husband drive slowly to get the dog accustomed to the traffic flow.
Su was condemned by many netizens as being "abusive" after the picture was posted online.
(By Wang Hung-kuo and Lee Hsin-Yin)