by Ben, Howard Liao, Joann Hsu, Sophie Yen

chinese version below 點擊此處閱讀中文版本

According to the Taiwan SPCA, there were over 600 reports of people abusing animals in 2019. It is really unacceptable in a developed country like Taiwan. Therefore, this research group decided to conduct research that would hopefully help reduce the cases of animal abuse. This research group chose to research the topic of legal policy and how changing the policy may stop people from abusing animals. Changing policy may be a direct way to stop people from harming animals. Our main research question was in relation to the effectiveness of fines or jail terms towards changing the current situation of animal abuse. After getting all the questionnaire results, we hope we could show the results to the government or policymakers to see if it’s able to make the laws stricter. We hope this can help stop the situation of people harming animals.

For our questionnaire, thirty-nine males and thirty-four females answered. There were a total of 74 responses. This questionnaire consisted of two questions. The second question was an open-ended question that followed the results of the first yes or no question.

Hello, we are students from VIS Junior High. We are doing a survey for animal welfare. We hope everyone can give their honest opinion.

According to the current animal protection law, when people abuse animals, the maximum penalty is imprisonment of up to two years and a fine of NT$200,000 - NT$2 million. Do you think the highest penalty in the current animal protection law should be increased?

Yes/No

If No-Then what can we do to stop people from abusing animals? If Yes-Do you feel that an increase in fines or an increase in jail time would be more effective towards stopping animal abuse?

Do you think the highest penalty in the current animal protection law should be increased?

If Yes- Do you feel that an increase in fines or an increase in jail time would be more effective towards stopping animal abuse?

1. Males agree more than females on making stricter laws.
2. More females than males feel that longer jail time would be more effective at stopping animal abuse.
3. From the results gathered, more males than females feel that raising fines is more effective than raising jail time for stopping animal abuse.
4. For the people who voted “no” to the Q.2, many respondents stated that the solution to stopping people from abusing animals is not raising the fines, but that education is much more effective.
5. Some of the male respondents think that the fine is not high enough.
6. More people voted to increase jail time than for raising fines.
7. A large portion of the public thinks that the current punishment should be increased in order to effectively stop animal abuse.

Do you think the highest penalty in the current animal protection law should be increased?

Feedback from respondents who felt that current laws do not need to be adjusted

Some of the responses we got, (6/21 that for education) show that many people think that education is more effective than any punishment.

1. For the people who voted “no” to (Do you think the highest penalty in the current animal protection law should be increased?) They think the solution is not raising the fines, but that education is more effective at stopping animal abuse behavior.

This research team has the same opinion on letting people have thought of not hurting animals since they were young. Educating when younger could make them have the idea of protecting animals starting from their childhood, there wouldn’t be that many cases of harming animals. According to the CDC, it says, “Preschool-aged children experience profound biological brain development and achieve 90 percent of their adult brain volume by age 6.”

2. Many of the responses we got from the public state that the current punishment should be increased in order to effectively stop animal abuse.

This team agrees that raising the punishment can be effective at reducing occurrences of animal abuse. An example that stricter laws helped is making the gun law stricter. According to a finding from CNBC, it says, “In states like Alabama, Alaska, and Louisiana, where guns are lightly regulated, the rate of deaths by firearms (per 100,000 people) is more than four times higher than in New York, Connecticut, Hawaii or Massachusetts, which have some of the strictest gun laws in the country.” This shows how stricter gun law helps reduce the amount of deaths from firearms.

3. More people voted to increase jail time than fines (total of fines 19.3%, total of jail time 80.7%).

Most people feel that increasing time in jail would be more effective than raising the number of fines on reducing animal abuse. This team agrees with this opinion because maybe the people who abuse animals aren’t concerned with money, they can still do anything they want. But if they’re in jail, they can’t be free, so they would start to self-criticize. Making the people who harm animals stay in jail longer might be more helpful in changing their minds.

In conclusion, according to the respondents, a stricter punishment would be much more effective at reducing animal abuse. Most think that the fine is not high enough and the jail time is not long enough. Most people that thought either the fine is not high enough or jail time is not long enough said that jail time is a much more effective way than to make the fine higher. This research group's suggestion to help reduce animal abuse is to increase the time spent in jail. We should raise the punishment, especially jail time. And at the same time, we should have more programs that educate people about protecting animals. We should do these things together.

根據SPCA(台灣動物防虐協會），2019年中就大約有600例虐待動物的案子。在台灣這樣發達的國家真的很難讓人接受。這個小組選擇去研究動物保護法並從中找出阻止人們繼續虐待動物的方法。這是制止人們持續虐待動物最直接的方式。我們研究的重點是關於政府是否應該提高虐待動物者的罰款或延長監禁的時間。我們希望能透過將調查結果呈現給政府或是相關人員，讓動保法變得更加嚴厲，藉此阻止人們持續虐待動物的行為。

統計完我們的問卷答覆後，我們採集到了三十九位男性和三十四位女性的答覆，共計74則回覆。這項問卷包含了兩個問題。第二個問題回答方式是開放型的，且承接第一個問題的答案。

您好，我們是來自VIS中學的學生。我們正在為動物福利做一份調查。希望您能提供一份寶貴的意見！

當人們虐待動物時，依照現在的動保法，最高懲罰是兩年以下有期徒刑並且罰款新臺幣20萬到200萬元之間的罰金。 那你認為現在動保法最高懲罰是否該提高？

是 / 否

否-那你認為要怎麼阻止虐待動物的人？ 是-那你認為該提高坐牢的時間還是罰款的金額呢？

Q.1你認為現在動保法最高懲罰是否該提高？

是-那你認為該提高坐牢的時間還是罰款的金額呢？

1. 男性大多數同意制定更嚴格的法律。
2. 與男性相比，更多的女性認為提高坐牢的時間會在阻止虐待動物這方面更有效。
3. 根據我們得到的結果，更多的男性認為提高罰款比提高坐牢時間更有效。
4. 大多數在第二個問題投下反對票的人，認為最好的解決方式並不是提高罰款，而是透過教育。
5. 一些男性認為罰款不夠高。
6. 同意提高坐牢時間的人多過於同意提高罰款的人。
7. 大多數的人認為應該加重現在的罰則，以有效制止虐待動物的行為。

你認為現在動保法最高懲罰是否該提高？ 來自“否”的回答：來自認為現行法律不需要調整的受訪者的反饋

根據我們的回覆中（6/21 投教育），大部分的民眾都覺得教育才是最基本需要倡導的。

1.在第二個問題中(那你認為現在動保法最高懲罰是否該提高？)投否的民眾覺得提高罰款不是最好的懲罰方式，他們認為從小的家庭教育才是解決問題的根本辦法。

對於讓人們從小就有不傷害動物的想法，這個研究小組也有同樣的看法。 從小時候就開始教育，可以讓他們從小就建立保護動物的想法，傷害動物的案例就會減少。 根據疾病預防控制中心的說法，“學齡前的兒童皆會經歷大幅度的大腦發育，並在 6 歲時達到成人腦容量的 90%。”

2.從我們向大眾得到的結果中，很多都認為應該加重現在的罰則，以有效制止虐待動物行為。

這個團隊認為提高懲罰可以有效減少虐待動物行為的發生。在過去，也有許多提高懲處後對社會帶來助益的成功案例 ，例如美國槍枝法的改革。根據 CNBC 的調查結果，顯示“在像阿拉巴馬州、阿拉斯加州和路易斯安那州這樣對槍支管制很寬鬆的州，槍支造成的死亡率（每 100,000 人）是紐約、康涅狄格、夏威夷和馬薩諸塞等擁有最嚴格槍支法州的四倍多。” 這說明更嚴格的槍支法有助於減少槍支造成的死亡人數。

3.比起罰款金額，更多民眾選擇坐牢時間。(提高罰款的總共數 19.3%,提高坐牢時間的總共數80.7%)

大多數民眾覺得比起罰款金額，坐牢時間的增加才會讓施虐者有效反省自己的行為。這個小組也同意這個觀點，因為也許金錢的罰則對於這些施虐者來說無關痛癢，他們仍然可以繼續為所欲為。 但如果他們被關在監獄裡，他們就會失去自由，也因此會開始自我檢討。讓施虐者在監獄留得越久會越有效地改變他們的想法。

根據所得到的答覆，更強的罰則會更有效地制止虐待動物的行為發生。 多數人認為目前的罰款金額太低，坐牢時間也太短。 超過一半的民眾認為比起提高罰款金額，增加坐牢的時間會更有效。這個研究小組所提出的建議是提高坐牢時間，以有效地幫助減少虐待動物的行為。所以我們應該提高懲罰，特別是坐牢的時間，同時，我們應該增加人們對於保護動物觀念的教育。這兩者必須同時進行。