| Summary: | 碩士 === 國立成功大學 === 法律學系 === 106 === Initially, when the Animal Protection Act of Taiwan was enacted in 1998, the nature of the punishment of animal abuse was administrative penalties. After amendment in 2007, abusing behaviours cruelty to animals were criminalized and the party would be punished criminal responsibilities. However, the criminal law can be seen as law of protection for legal interests. The act of punishment must exist for the purpose of infringing on one’s interests. If animal protection is based on the animals themselves which need to be protected, then it is contrary to the theory of legal interests. As a result, the purpose of this article is to investigate the legal interests of animal abuse and other behaviours, and to determine the rationality of using criminal law as means of animal protection.
In order to understand the context of Taiwan’s protection of animals over the years, first of all, this article begins with an introduction to moral theories and theories of animal protection, and then explains how moral thinking can play a role in the legal system. And then discusses the basis of punishing acts such as animal abuse and the goal of protecting legal interests. This article believes that protecting animals by law is not a direct protection of morality. Protecting animals is an emotion produced by human, but it is a consensus and a call from social cohesion. After the communication of emotions between people, this phenomenon became institutionalized and could be an emotional interest, while the protection method is implanted by criminal law. Finally, it is to conduct a review and inquiry on the object of protection, actus reus, and penalties targeted at the current Animal Protection Act of Taiwan. Although this article recognizes that criminal law can be used to protect animals, it is not the optimized way to increase penalties. It should still be accompanied by administrative controls and improve the status of animals in our country’s laws so that they can effectively improve the treatment of animals.
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