農業部狗活動區（公園）會議
今天，我陪同何宗勳秘書長往農業部參加一個會議。這次會議由農業部支持與台灣愛狗人士協會主辦、台灣動物保護行政監督聯盟協辦，該計畫希望評鑑與表揚全國寵物狗活動區，為動物友善和主人友善公共空間制定標準。他們還計劃舉辦競賽，為高品質的寵物公園頒獎。
在閱讀了一篇關於何秘書長2023年的文章後，我發現大多數狗公園和無線遛狗區都集中在台灣北部，特別是台北市、新北市和桃園市；寵物公園在全國的分佈並不均衡。目前台灣還沒有全國性的寵物公園設計指南或標準。他們提議將公園分為「城市」和「社區」兩種類型，其中城市公園規模更大，是功能齊全的旗艦公園；「社區公園」規模較小，更便於步行到達（更方便），主要面向犬類。
我還發現一個有趣的現象：在現有區域內建造狗公園比從零開始建造一個新公園要困難得多，因為許多人反對，他們認為這塊空間應該用於其他用途。例如，大安森林公園面積相當大，我個人很懷疑為什麼那裡沒有狗公園。然而，該公園顯然已被劃為生態保護區，環保組織強烈反對在那裡建造狗公園。
會中提出了許多關於如何具體運作比賽的問題——如何確定不同狗公園的規模類別？應該設立幾個類別──兩個還是三個？每個狗公園的申請應該由誰提交？申請截止日期是什麼時候？參加這次會議我學到的一個重要教訓是，在實施公共政策措施時，必須確保成果不易被批評。同樣重要的是，要明確目標，並能夠正確評估現有舉措，以避免被指責不公平；同時，要盡可能簡化流程，避免公眾困惑和誤解。
我也覺得很有意思，日本的公共政策倡議再次成為討論的焦點。例如，一位成員提到，日本採用的是一種為已植入晶片、接種疫苗並絕育的犬隻佩戴身份標籤的系統；因此，他們提議實施一套數位化系統，透過入口閘機掃描並驗證犬隻是否已登記、接種疫苗和絕育，從而控制出入。有人建議使用身分證來降低成本和實施難度，但如果人們試圖鑽空子，這種方法就會受阻。在日本，這套系統之所以行之有效，是因為公眾的遵守率極高，這也反映了文化對公共政策制定的影響。
這讓我開始思考，在我的祖國，犬類公園的管理規定是什麼。在美國，犬隻公園也沒有統一的全國性標準；但大多數地方法規都要求犬隻持有有效的許可證/疫苗接種證明，而且許多地方都設有指定的雙重閘門系統，而這個組織正在提議在台灣實施類似的系統。
Ministry of Agriculture Dog Park/Animal Park Meeting
Today, I accompanied Secretary-General Ho Tsung-hsun to a meeting at the Ministry of Agriculture. This meeting, supported by the Ministry of Agriculture and hosted by the Taiwan Dog Lovers Association, with the Taiwan Animal Protection Administration Supervision Alliance as a co-organizer, aims to evaluate and commend dog parks nationwide, establishing standards for animal-friendly and owner-friendly public spaces. They also plan to hold a competition to award prizes to high-quality pet parks.
After reading an article about Secretary-General Ho's 2023 plan, I found that most dog parks and wireless dog-walking areas are concentrated in northern Taiwan, particularly Taipei, New Taipei, and Taoyuan; the distribution of pet parks across the country is uneven. Currently, Taiwan lacks nationwide pet park design guidelines or standards. They proposed dividing parks into two types: "urban" and "community." Urban parks are larger and fully functional flagship parks; "community parks" are smaller, more walkable (more convenient), and primarily cater to dogs.
I also observed an interesting phenomenon: building a dog park within an existing area is much more difficult than building a new park from scratch, because many people object, believing the space should be used for other purposes. For example, Da'an Forest Park is quite large, and I personally doubt why there isn't a dog park there. However, the park has clearly been designated as an ecological reserve, and environmental organizations strongly oppose building a dog park there.
Many questions were raised during the meeting regarding the specifics of how the competition would be conducted—how to determine the different sizes and categories of dog parks? How many categories should be established—two or three? Who should submit applications for each dog park? What is the application deadline? One important lesson I learned from this meeting is that when implementing public policy measures, it is crucial to ensure that the results are not easily criticized. Equally important is to have clear objectives and be able to properly evaluate existing initiatives to avoid accusations of unfairness; at the same time, to simplify processes as much as possible to avoid public confusion and misunderstanding.
I also found it interesting that Japanese public policy initiatives were once again a focus of discussion. For example, one member mentioned that Japan uses a system where microchipped, vaccinated, and spayed/neutered dogs wear identification tags; therefore, they proposed implementing a digital system that scans and verifies at entrance gates whether dogs are registered, vaccinated, and spayed/neutered, thereby controlling access. Some have suggested using ID cards to reduce costs and implementation difficulty, but this approach would be thwarted if people tried to circumvent the rules. In Japan, this system works because of extremely high public compliance, reflecting the influence of culture on public policy.
This made me think about the regulations for dog parks in my home country. In the United States, there are no uniform national standards for dog parks; however, most local regulations require dogs to have valid licenses/vaccination certificates, and many places have designated double-gate systems. This organization is proposing a similar system for Taiwan.
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