According to wiki, rats and mice almost never carry rabies.
Serious question MM: The house shrew in Taitung was infected. Looks like a rat, but I don’t know much about it. Do they have them in New Taipei City area?
I’ll be getting our cats along to the vet at the earliest possible chance-and I don’t blame Taiwanese for availing themselves of rabies shots for their pets. Smart.
I do, however, blame:
-those who imported the animals from China 10 years ago then just set them free in the mountains when they got sick/were surplus to requirements
-those in the mountain areas who noticed some problem in the last 5 years, but did not report it strongly to authorities.
If that timeline is true, you’d think there’d have been at least 1 instance of ferret-badger transmission to human in that time.
The disease is not always picked up by medics in the States …
Yes, well I read it online so it must be true…
Here’s a quote about house shrews, from Wikipedia:
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30% is kind of a weird number. Obviously high enough to be significant, but too low to suggest anything well out of the ordinary. I guess abandonment must be pretty common.
College kids. :raspberry:
House shrews? Yeah. I was playing with one a few weeks ago before this happened. Didn’t touch it, just was trying to direct it away from the road. Cute little things. Damn shame if they go rapid.
Could be better if they go rapid, won’t need you to help them escape cars. 
LOL. I wonder what the couple who live at street level and were sitting in their glass house (literally their front wall is glass) and saw me directly the shrew (taming it so to speak) think of me now.
Did you guys hear about some people in Kaohsiung beating the shit out of some palm civets because they were scared they could have rabies? O_o
Here are the CDC reccommendations for who should receive the SELF-PAY rabies vaccine. I am baffled. What if one cannot or doesn’t want to pay foe the vaccine? They send him on his merry way?? O_o
Thats terrible. They should be arrested for harming animals. The public need to be educated. Theres no need for panic. Most countries have rabies endemic and still the chances of getting rabies is near nill.
The USA has rabies , but we have no real worry for the most part.
The public in Taiwan need to be educated. IT is up to the govt to do this.
Wanton killing of wild animals or domestic animals is not warranted.
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[quote=“Novaspes”]Leave it up to the Taiwanese to react responsibly to the rabies outbreak.
http://www.chinapost.com.tw/taiwan/national/national-news/2013/07/31/385163/COA-confirms.htm
Fucking idiots. I wish rabies to whoever abandons their pets. :fume:[/quote]
Problem is those household pets will have a higher chance of contracting the disease, as they have no idea of how to run away from danger, in this case, dangerous animals infected with the disease.
[quote=“Kea”]Serious question MM: The house shrew in Taidong was infected. Looks like a rat, but I don’t know much about it. Do they have them in New Taipei City area?
I’ll be getting our cats along to the vet at the earliest possible chance-and I don’t blame Taiwanese for availing themselves of rabies shots for their pets. Smart.
I do, however, blame:
-those who imported the animals from China 10 years ago then just set them free in the mountains when they got sick/were surplus to requirements
-those in the mountain areas who noticed some problem in the last 5 years, but did not report it strongly to authorities.[/quote]
Remember during SARS, the people who raised ferrets and other similar animals for edible purposes, staged a protest as their business was in decline? Guess it never really took off again.
Remember the wise guys who brought African snails to sell for profit -also edible- but when their business failed, they just released them and that is why we have this giant snails all around?
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[quote=“Novaspes”]Did you guys hear about some people in Kaohsiung beating the shit out of some palm civets because they were scared they could have rabies? O_o
Here are the CDC reccommendations for who should receive the SELF-PAY rabies vaccine. I am baffled. What if one cannot or doesn’t want to pay foe the vaccine? They send him on his merry way?? O_o[/quote]
The TV news were reporting clusters of poisoned dogs in Southern Taiwan. Could also be related. Creates more panic as people find dog dead/dying and think it is rabies.
In my son’s music-pre-school (whatever that exactly is, like a busiban without illegal Englishy teachurs, instead with pretty young mums, old Bob Honest and little kids singing and dancing) we all had our temperature measured. I guess they want to prevent one of the young mums biting the others or something. Well, it only gets dangerous if guys in uniform with assault rifles start checking for bite marks. Til then… no panic necessary.
That might be connected to the enterovirus (sp) outbreak that has killed a few people recently, including a one-month-old and a teenager, rather than rabies.
:fume: :bluemad: 
This is what happens when you allow any random idiot to walk into a hardware store and buy lethal chemicals. There’s a toxic combination of a complete disrespect for technology and for the natural environment in Taiwan that’s guaranteed to produce tragic results. Keep your pets indoors, people. It only takes one misguided halfwit to decimate the local pet population.
Just took Miss Flops to Formosa Pet on XinYi Road Section 4, #408. She got her rabies shot, an 8 in 1 shot, blood test, chipped and had a mani-pedi for 850nt. No muss, no fuss (except for the mani-pedi, man she hates that).
Anyway, Flops is set. Is your pet?
[quote=“Pop Fly”]Just took Miss Flops to Formosa Pet on Xinyi Road Section 4, #408. She got her rabies shot, an 8 in 1 shot, blood test, chipped and had a mani-pedi for 850nt. No muss, no fuss (except for the mani-pedi, man she hates that).
Anyway, Flops is set. Is your pet?[/quote]
Oh my, that is SO cheap!! Do you know if they’re open tonight, at least until 20.30? Thanks.
That might be connected to the enterovirus (sp) outbreak that has killed a few people recently, including a one-month-old and a teenager, rather than rabies.[/quote]
They want you to believe that. :ohreally: