[quote=“Novaspes”][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.[/quote]
They are open to 9PM. I made an appointment. Sorry, I am at work now and don’t have the number, but will post it later tonight. If you are in the XinYi district, it might be okay to just drop in, then come to Happy Hour after your vet visit. It’s just across and down the street half a block.
That’s right, they don’t. Rat poisons, pesticides, drain cleaners, etc. have no practical value whatsoever. Especially not in the hands of some 80-year-old who not only can’t read the label, but doesn’t want to anyway because he’s 80 years old and he knows better than these youngsters who write stupid labels. Anyway, I’m not talking about furniture polish - I mean stuff that isn’t even available to pest control professionals in Europe. If people are using off-the-shelf poisons to kill people’s pets - which they do, regularly, even when there isn’t a rabies scare - that’s probably a pretty good reason not to sell them to the general public.
But you’d find it much easier with a box of bromadiolone.
So do you suggest EU like controls on chemicals where anything other than table salt is illegal? If demand is there outlawing them is just going to make the mafia rich from underground trades.
That’s just silly. There is obviously no demand for most of this stuff. It’s just that they are available so people use it. Just imagine your scenario for a second and you’ll see how implausible it is.
Ideally, I’d like it to be far tougher than the EU. You can still buy stuff like glyphosate, bug killer, and sodium hydroxide over the counter, no questions asked. I admit these things occasionally have their uses, but 95% of the time they’re used for no good reason; or because someone is trying to avoid solving the real problem and/or doing the job properly; or because someone did something stupid and needs a band-aid.
In Taiwan, you can buy powerful pesticides, herbicides and fungicides OTC at any seed shop. Frankly, your question belies a naive faith in technology to make everything OK again with no side effects or price to pay, regardless of how ineptly that technology is applied, and there are plenty of other people who think the same way. Nobody has some sort of divine right to access dangerous products. Handing out poisons to anyone who asks for them is as irresponsible as selling a machete to a 12-year-old. Yes, I know it was possible to do either of those things around, say, 1750. I’d like to think we’ve moved on a bit since then.
The mafia are already rich. Apart from the reason MM just mentioned (ie., that scenario is utterly bizarre) do you really think they’d care about making $200NT from Farmer A-Fu who wants to poison A-Zhu’s dog, because A-Zhu poisoned his dog last month?
So if you want to do chemistry experiments in the EU it’s impossible because of all the hoops you have to jump through. In Taiwan you walk into a chem shop and buy whatever you need. They already regulate really poisonous stuff like cyanides but do you really think EU’s totalitarian standards are any better? So who are we to tell people what they can’t do? Do you wish the whole world be under some all powerful directives because they know what’s best for everyone?
I still long for the time when they actually had real chemicals in chemistry sets…
[quote=“Taiwan Luthiers”]So if you want to do chemistry experiments in the EU it’s impossible because of all the hoops you have to jump through. In Taiwan you walk into a chem shop and buy whatever you need. They already regulate really poisonous stuff like cyanides but do you really think EU’s totalitarian standards are any better? So who are we to tell people what they can’t do? Do you wish the whole world be under some all powerful directives because they know what’s best for everyone?
I still long for the time when they actually had real chemicals in chemistry sets…[/quote]
A ban or strict controls on dangerous chemicals is entirely reasonable given that those chemicals can all too easily end up in our water and food supplies (among other dangers). Well, they already do. Remember the plasticizer scandal? Fuckers using industrial agents for gelling and NO ONE was any wiser for about 2 decades because these things are not monitored with even a minimum of concern for their danger.
Of course Taiwan bans plenty of things, including handguns and the right to protest without applying first. The first is reasonable, the second much less so.
“We” (or “they”) are people with PhDs who know exactly what happens when pesticide XYZ is sprayed with abandon, because they’ve spent 20 years studying the subject. Or they might just be people who think it’s not OK to poison the neighbour’s dog. In either case, we allow them to lay down the law is because (a) most of polite society agrees that they know what they’re talking about (b) it infringes nobody’s right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness and (c) it prevents a lot of misery for the population at large. Technology can put a lot of power in the hands of the individual - the power of life and death, in many cases. If those individuals are halfwits or assholes, bad stuff happens. Some technology is so powerful, so complicated, or so hard to manage that it puts pretty much every human into the “halfwit” category. I can’t believe we’re even having a discussion about this.
Actually I agree with you. If the general public did have a better grasp of how science works, and a little more respect for technology in general (or chemistry specifically), they might be less inclined to chuck plasticizers in people’s soft drinks. Science kits are (were!) a great way to get kids interested in the subject.
I had a science kit when I was a kid, and I went into science. But I recall that some of the chemicals were rather nasty, I don’t think I would easily let my kids muck around with the same thing unless checking it thoroughly first.
We need chemical controls because these chemicals can get into our food and water supply and contaminate our air. We especially need controls in such a crowded and populated island which grows a lot of its own food.
As mentioned already the plasticizer and malate hydride scandals probe this point adequately, as do surveys of pesticide misuse on vegetables and fruit.
Some chemicals like dioxins are so powerful and dangerous they cannot be let near the food chain.
You have to get a license to spray pesticide. I know this sounds like over regulating but you need to attend school for 12 years now so why not get 3 hours education on how and which and how much pesticide to use and the medical effects of pesticides? Maybe there are these courses already but not mandatory. I also support as close to full traceability in food as possible. This is extremely important.
So, my vet told me that the fuss has died down, the press is not beating the gong so much on this issue no mo’. Vaccines are here so everything is cool… for now.
He also told me Taipei city has run out of dog tags and paper passports, but they won’t issue more since there are only 4 months to go to this year and they deem is not economically worth it. But they put a seal on your doggie’s passport f he has one.
Both Bobby and Toto got their shots. I am taking the cats one at a time to get theirs, too. But the dogs will still be wearing last year’s tags.
The first case of rabies infection in dogs has been confirmed, the Central Epidemic Command Center for rabies said yesterday. The center was informed by the Animal Health Research Institute that a dog suspected to have been infected was sent to the institute by Taitung County’s animal disease control center on Monday and was later confirmed to have had rabies by the direct fluorescent antibody test and reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR). The infected dog was a Taitung County resident’s pet, and was bitten by a rabid ferret-badger on Aug. 14 and sent to the county’s animal disease control center the next day to be placed under quarantine and observation. The dog started to exhibit loss of appetite and depression on Sept. 6, experienced paralysis of body parts on Sunday and was euthanized on the same day. The Council of Agriculture said that any warm-blooded animal can be infected with rabies and speculated that since the dog was only one-and-a-half-months-old and small, it was more susceptible to attacks by ferret-badgers. Bureau of Animal and Plant Health Inspection and Quarantine Director Chang Su-san (張淑賢) said that currently only those pet dogs that are aged three months or older can receive rabies vaccinations, so the puppy was not vaccinated.
[/quote]
[quote]TAIPEI, Taiwan – The Council of Agriculture (COA) yesterday said that rabies experiments planned to be carried out on live dogs will be reconsidered in response to the first canine case of the virus and after some experts suggested that bats could be the original carriers.
The Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) has confirmed that a 1-month-old pet dog in Taitung County was euthanized on Sunday after contracting rabies. Also recently, wild animal experts have theorized that ferret-badgers could be being infected with the virus by wild bats.
The experiments were designed to determine whether dogs could be infected with rabies through a bite by a rabid ferret-badger.
COA Minister Chen Bao-ji (陳保基) said that the Bureau of Animal and Plant Health Inspection and Quarantine (BAPHIQ) and Animal Health Research Institute (AHRI) will review their animal monitoring systems in light of the developments.
“The COA will invite experts to discuss whether it is still necessary to conduct rabies experiments on dogs,” Chen said.
[/quote]
Gee, at least the doggie’s death was not in vain… we hope so.
And in that high note:
[quote]First Human Rabies Infection may be Soon: Expert
National Taiwan University veterinary medicine professor Yeh Lih-seng (葉力森) said yesterday that the first case of a person being infected with rabies is likely not far away.
Yeh said that the government’s weekly press conferences have not been very constructive in rabies prevention. Furthermore, Yeh said, the first case of a dog being infected means that authorities should enforce new measures to prevent rabies spreading to other species.
“People have been slacking off in rabies prevention recently,” Yeh said.
“In these kind of circumstances, the first case of a person being infected with rabies is likely to happen soon.”
[/quote]
[quote=“Icon”]some experts suggested that bats could be the original carriers.
[/quote]
Have they actually bothered to sequence the virus, or are they just talking out of their assholes? The different rabies strains have genetic differences, and can be tracked pretty well, from what I’ve read.
Starting to worry about the local dogs now. Those ladies who cart the trash around often seem to be followed by dogs that are off the leash. The last few times I’ve gone to Tong Hua night market there has been a pack of dogs (towards the top of the night market) - off the leash as well. Might be a good idea to keep dogs on a lead/leash until this thing sorts itself out. For the safety of both people and dogs (probably less chance of them getting bitten by a wild animal/stray dog, that way).
