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HalfMooner
Dingaling
Philippines
15831 Posts |
 Posted - 08/02/2006 : 16:58:21
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How stupid and cruel can government hacks get? (Rhetorical question.) One word about the rabies outbreak to the outside world would probably have resulted in tens of thousands of doses of rabies vaccine being flown to the area, along with dog-loving volunteers to administer them. This AP story at CNN.com tells the sad tale: quote:
Chinese county culls 50,000 dogs
Wednesday, August 2, 2006; Posted: 2:58 p.m. EDT (18:58 GMT)
SHANGHAI, China (AP) -- A county in southwestern China has killed as many as 50,000 dogs in a government-ordered campaign following the deaths of three local people from rabies, official media reported on Tuesday.
The five-day massacre in Yunnan province's Mouding county spared only military guard dogs and police canine units, the Shanghai Daily reported, citing local media.
Dogs being walked were taken from their owners and beaten to death on the spot, it said. Other killing teams entered villages at night creating noise to get dogs barking, then homing in on their prey.
. . .
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“Biology is just physics that has begun to smell bad.” —HalfMooner
Here's a link to Moonscape News, and one to its Archive. |
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Dr. Mabuse
Septic Fiend
Sweden
9688 Posts |
Posted - 08/03/2006 : 02:29:26 [Permalink]
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I'm not well versed in infectious deceases, but dogs aren't the only carriers of rabies, are they?
I have a vague memory of rats and bats also carrying the virus.
Killing off dogs in this manner seems to me more like using a gun to kill a mosquito, in order to calm the public. |
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moakley
SFN Regular
USA
1888 Posts |
Posted - 08/03/2006 : 04:16:07 [Permalink]
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quote:
Originally posted by Dr. Mabuse
I'm not well versed in infectious deceases, but dogs aren't the only carriers of rabies, are they?
I have a vague memory of rats and bats also carrying the virus.
Here in Charlotte, NC the carriers that typically make the news when there is an out break are racoons and skunks. |
Life is good
Philosophy is questions that may never be answered. Religion is answers that may never be questioned. -Anonymous |
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filthy
SFN Die Hard
USA
14408 Posts |
Posted - 08/03/2006 : 04:41:48 [Permalink]
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Almost any mammal can be a carrier of rabies. An exception to this is marsupials such as opossums. This year, I have euthanized a rabid fox and another wildlife rescuer in the area has also had to use the pistol for the same, sad reason -- a raccoon, if I remember right.
The rabies virus is temperature specific and will die when it's host cools off. But I wonder how many other animals my fox infected before I was called to deal with it.
I find myself a little ambiviant about the Chinese, mass slaughter. It's all rather gristly and horrid, but there they don't have the vet clinics nor the vaccines, nor is it easy to identify a recently infected animal. On the one hand, I abhor the overkill; on the other, I can see the reason for it. Rabies is a very nasty way to die.
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"What luck for rulers that men do not think." -- Adolf Hitler (1889 - 1945)
"If only we could impeach on the basis of criminal stupidity, 90% of the Rethuglicans and half of the Democrats would be thrown out of office." ~~ P.Z. Myres
"The default position of human nature is to punch the other guy in the face and take his stuff." ~~ Dude
Brother Boot Knife of Warm Humanitarianism,
and Crypto-Communist! 
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furshur
SFN Regular
USA
1536 Posts |
Posted - 08/03/2006 : 06:40:48 [Permalink]
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I have had to shoot a couple rabid racoons in my neck of the woods. But for godsake:
quote:
Dogs being walked were taken from their owners and beaten to death on the spot, it said.
Come on that's a bit over the top....
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If I knew then what I know now then I would know more now than I know. |
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filthy
SFN Die Hard
USA
14408 Posts |
Posted - 08/03/2006 : 13:18:13 [Permalink]
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quote:
Originally posted by furshur
I have had to shoot a couple rabid racoons in my neck of the woods. But for godsake:
quote:
Dogs being walked were taken from their owners and beaten to death on the spot, it said.
Come on that's a bit over the top....
Indeed it is, if true. I have no doubt that a great number of dogs were killed, many if not most brutally, however I question the story. The media too often tends to focus on the lurid in favor of the actual facts.
It brings up a question: how does one stop a rabies epidemic, where a very large canine population lives in close proximity with each other and humans -- remembering that once the symptoms become manifest, the disease is incurable? And further remembering that veterinary and even medical facilities in this county are probably a little better than primitive at best.
Historically, there has always been a certain hysteria attached to rabies. Indeed, it is thought, with some credence, that the werewolf myths had their genesis in people bitten by rabid wolves. When the symptoms came to their peak in these victims, they behaved exactly as had the dying wolf , often infecting others trying to care for them and renewing the cycle.
In my dealings with injured and/or sick wildlife, I have found that I am not immune to this fear. On those occasions where I have even the slightest suspicion of rabies, I destroy the animal on the spot -- occasionally to the distress of onlookers. But I would rather err on the side of caution, and post mortem examinations have only proven me wrong once.
Rabies really is a horrible affliction. I take it very seriously because even though I specialize in reptiles, I have had to deal with it now and then.
Here's a little advice: If you find any mammal, particularly a carnivore, acting at all strangely, slowly move away from it. Don't try to run from it because this might trigger an attack, even from an animal that would normally avoid humans or, like a dog or cat, hang out with them. Don't try to kill it, especially with a club. If you don't hit it just right on the first whack, you can get bitten, even mauled. Just move away from it, and if it does attack, run like a thief and hope it gets distracted before it catches up.
If you find a bat on the ground, leave it alone; it's sick and possibly/probably rabid. Although it's not flying, that doesn't mean that it can't and if you mess with it, you might have it in your face.
In all cases, call Animal Control or the cops, or a local wildlife lunatic such as myself.
Not knowing the hard facts of the Chinese outbreak, I can neither condone nor condemn their admittedly extreme actions. From their viewpoint, they did what they had to do. Whether or not it was proper, I must leave to the judgment of those better informed than I.
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"What luck for rulers that men do not think." -- Adolf Hitler (1889 - 1945)
"If only we could impeach on the basis of criminal stupidity, 90% of the Rethuglicans and half of the Democrats would be thrown out of office." ~~ P.Z. Myres
"The default position of human nature is to punch the other guy in the face and take his stuff." ~~ Dude
Brother Boot Knife of Warm Humanitarianism,
and Crypto-Communist!
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HalfMooner
Dingaling
Philippines
15831 Posts |
Posted - 08/03/2006 : 13:21:57 [Permalink]
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I agree with Filthy that rabies is a totally unacceptable disease to allow to spread among dogs. But it seems to me that a program of vaccinations would have been just as swift and effective as the wholesale slaughter of dogs. Instead of 50,000 mostly healthy companion animals beaten to death with clubs, teams of vaccinators could have essentially wiped out rabies in the dog population in the same time period.
I assume they did not have the stocks of rabies serum, and perhaps could not afford to buy it. But did the Mouding county mounties appeal for international help? Did they announce in advance that they would carry out their draconian plans if no alternative were swiftly available? Had they done so, and no international help came to the county, I would reluctantly have to agree that the slaughter was justified for public health reasons. But I'm afraid that a combination of misplaced national pride and lingering Maoist tyrannical style was what condemned the dogs to death.
I'm reminded of Mao's "Great Sparrow Campaign": quote:
It was decided that all the peasants in China should bang pots and pans and run around to make sparrows to fly away in fear. They would be too terrified to land and within 15 minutes of flying, they would drop out of the sky from exhaustion. This was very effective and soon after, the land was littered with thousands of dead sparrows.
The next year, the harvest was significantly better than the year before with no sparrows, but they had overlooked the fact that sparrows also eat locusts. Locusts swarmed the country the following year and a famine hit China. From 1959 to 1961, an estimated 30 million people died of starvation. . . .
-- Wikipedia
Will there now be a plaque of rabid rats and cats in Moulding county?
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“Biology is just physics that has begun to smell bad.” —HalfMooner
Here's a link to Moonscape News, and one to its Archive. |
| Edited by - HalfMooner on 08/03/2006 13:27:06 |
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beskeptigal
SFN Die Hard
USA
3834 Posts |
Posted - 08/03/2006 : 13:43:11 [Permalink]
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You guys need some perspective here.
Latest U.S. data shows shelter killing down to 4.2 million/year. (pdf file)
Pivotal Role of Dogs in Rabies Transmission, China; CDC; 12-05
"In addition to the prevalence of rabies in dogs, the disease was also reported in other domestic animals, livestock, and wildlife, including cattle, pigs, sheep, foxes, sika deer, rats, and bats."
Distribution of rabies in the USA (great maps and info)
The article is missing later data where we had 2 rabies deaths in WA State.
Yes, it's a shame China couldn't have had a vaccine campaign instead. And the picture showing those lovely collies conjers up thoughts of Lassie being wrenched from young Timmy's arms. But it's probably closer to the Old Yeller story, very sad but necessary.
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| Edited by - beskeptigal on 08/03/2006 13:43:33 |
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HalfMooner
Dingaling
Philippines
15831 Posts |
Posted - 08/03/2006 : 13:54:04 [Permalink]
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I don't think anyone is minimizing the extreme public health risk of rabies, B. Even as a dog lover, I've agreed that what Moulding county did would be justifiable if a vaccination program could not be swiftly organized. But it's not that China "couldn't have a vaccine campaign," but that the county officials apparently didn't even try.
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“Biology is just physics that has begun to smell bad.” —HalfMooner
Here's a link to Moonscape News, and one to its Archive. |
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beskeptigal
SFN Die Hard
USA
3834 Posts |
Posted - 08/04/2006 : 10:15:05 [Permalink]
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Now that the news is reporting the number in the dog slaughter up to 500,000, I forgot to add, if we kill over 4 million dogs a year in a country with very few feral dogs, can you imagine what China's dog population must be like?
I wasn't commenting so much on the fact they need to kill the dogs as I was commenting on the fact we just do it differently.
I put the rabies info up FYI after the talk about which animals carry it. The story of the Raccoons is fascinating. Hunters imported FL raccoons to the NE and one or more were rabid. There has been a rabies epidemic in the raccoon population in the NE moving out in concentric circles ever since. |
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HalfMooner
Dingaling
Philippines
15831 Posts |
Posted - 08/04/2006 : 12:30:58 [Permalink]
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quote:
Originally posted by beskeptigal
Now that the news is reporting the number in the dog slaughter up to 500,000, I forgot to add, if we kill over 4 million dogs a year in a country with very few feral dogs, can you imagine what China's dog population must be like?
I wasn't commenting so much on the fact they need to kill the dogs as I was commenting on the fact we just do it differently.
I put the rabies info up FYI after the talk about which animals carry it. The story of the Raccoons is fascinating. Hunters imported FL raccoons to the NE and one or more were rabid. There has been a rabies epidemic in the raccoon population in the NE moving out in concentric circles ever since.
We certainly do it differently. Far too many of us still consider our companion animals to be disposable commodities, leading to massive euthanasia in animal shelters.
The anti-dog mania is spreading in China, along with the rabies epidemic, as you note. This story tells about it, and the heated debate it has ignited in China and the world. It's good to see that Chinese are willing and able to debate this issue, even if they still cannot talk or blog about the slaughter of pro-democracy protesters. "WHO experts have said they underscore a lack of coordination and other problems within China's health care system." PeTA has jumped into the debate, calling for a boycott of Chinese goods. (Personally, I could name half a dozen good reasons for a boycott of Chinese goods.) PeTA should instead send rabies vaccine and vets, in my opinion, if they really want to save pets more than they wanted to promote PeTA. In fact, I would donate money to any other organization that promises to be effective in sending serum and vaccinators.
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“Biology is just physics that has begun to smell bad.” —HalfMooner
Here's a link to Moonscape News, and one to its Archive. |
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