Four apprehended for suspected poaching in Kenting

Taipei, Sept. 29 (CNA) Four men were arrested by police in Kenting National Park for offenses related to suspected poaching on Sunday after a search uncovered firearms and a deer carcass in their vehicle.

In a video statement released by the Pingtung County Police Bureau's Hengchun Precinct, Kenting Police Station deputy chief Tsai Ching-yuan (蔡慶源) said four individuals aged between 20 and 22 were apprehended in the early hours of Sunday morning.

According to Tsai, the four suspects, identified by their surnames Wang (王), Tsao (曹), Han (韓) and Chiu (邱), did not have permits for the rifles, and he said the case has been handed over to prosecutors to determine if the suspects should be formally charged for theft and illegal firearm possession.

Police authorities are investigating whether the suspects belong to a larger criminal organization since they are not local residents, but instead came from Pingtung's Majia Township located around 100 kilometers to the north of Hengchun Township, Tsai said.

Poaching in Kenting National Park in southern Taiwan's Pingtung County has garnered attention in recent days after a local resident wrote on Facebook on Tuesday that "Kenting is a paradise for poachers."

The resident of Sheding, a community in Hengchun Township, criticized local authorities for not doing enough to stop poaching after he heard a gunshot one morning and later discovered around 20 meters behind their house the carcass of a deer whose antlers had been removed.

In response to media coverage of the post, Chen Yuan-fa (陳元發), the deputy head of the Eighth Division of the Seventh Special Police Corps, said the scope of patrols had expanded this year, and he vowed to "continue to hunt down and make arrests in the future."

According to Kenting National Park, there are more than 2,000 Formosan Sika deer in the Hengchun area.

The unique subspecies of deer native to Taiwan became extinct in the wild in 1969 but its population gradually increased following the launch of Kenting National Park's Formosan Sika Deer Restoration Program in 1984, according to the Wild at Heart Legal Defense Association.