Medical Technology is constantly evolving. Every day new machines that allow the enhancement of medical procedures are crated. In this matter veterinary is obviously behind human medicine. Chile in particular is quite behind other countries. For example some exams have to be done abroad since laboratories here don’t have the sufficient technology.
I think the university needs to invest more money on new technologies that will allow us to improve the quality of both our diagnostics and treatments.
In terms of social matters I think Chile is still a challenged country. A lot of people here still don’t consider animals as beings with rights and animal life remains under valuated. This leads to the fact that a lot of owners opt for the euthanasia of their sick pets despite the existence of other alternatives. Animals also get abandoned very often and clandestine dog fights are still happening. Owners are also not responsible enough with theirs pets. Dogs for example usually leave their houses completely unsupervised and the fact that most of them have not been castrated only serves to increase dog population.
I think this problem is completely related to education. Children should be taught from a very young age to respect animal life, they should also learn about the responsibilities that owning a pet implies.
Our discipline also faces tremendous problems in terms of its education.
In Chile there are currently more than 20 veterinary faculties. The government does not supervise the study plan for any of them. Faculties can then teach whatever they want, and some students finish the career without the proper knowledge. These veterinarians may then prescribe inappropriate treatments to some of their patients (this actually happens a lot).
I consider that once they finish their career, veterinary students ought to present a national test that evaluates how well prepared they are. This way, veterinarians from all over the country will be required to know the same.
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domingo, 20 de junio de 2010
sábado, 12 de junio de 2010
- - Tiger abuse in Chinese zoo - -
The news item I chose for this assignment recounts about a Chinese Zoo that was closed down due to the death of 11 Siberian Tigers and to the fact that it was accused of selling tonics made of tiger body parts.
Shenyang Forest Wildlife Zoo was a semi-private institution that started to reduce food rations due to financial problems. The investigation on said zoo began after 11 Siberian tigers died of starvation in the space of 6 months. Apparently the keepers were feeding them cheap chicken pieces because the zoo was short of money. The institution was also accused of providing tiger bones and penises to manufacturers of traditional chinese medicines (despite being a ban on such kind of trade). One of the zoo employees actually stated that since 2000 around 40 to 50 tigers died in the zoo and the fact that their bones were being used to produce tiger-bone-wine was something pretty much everybody knew. The zoo spended more money on the purchase and maintenance of freezers (used to preserve saleable tiger parts) than on the food required by the felines.
Sadly this situation seems to be quite common in China, around 6,000 to 10,000 animals are currently being sheltered by institutions that only pose as breeding centers (their real objective being the farming and marketing of animal parts). The investigation started by the authorities will also examine the situation in which other captive-breeding business are. The paper actually discovered that more than 1,000 captive tigers are in danger of sufering malnourishment.
One of the problems lies within the fact that China has no laws against animal cruelty and the government does not supervise breeding centers. Therefore anyone with enough funds can build a zoo or a wildlife park and do whatever they please with the animals in it. Nevertheless, the government announced that captive breeding system will be re-evaluated if the investigation reveals such abuse to be happening in other centers.
I personally consider this to be awful news. The Chinese government really ought to regularly inspect zoos (specially the ones sheltering endangered species). I also think Chinese people should think about the effect that some of their traditions have on animal welfare (after all, animal parts trade survives because of the public’s demand). I do realize however how difficult this is.
PS: Here's the Link to the news item -> http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/mar/17/chinese-zoo-tiger
PS2: I guess I'll ask Nacho and Simon to review this. Tere is welcome to do so too of course!! =D
~
Shenyang Forest Wildlife Zoo was a semi-private institution that started to reduce food rations due to financial problems. The investigation on said zoo began after 11 Siberian tigers died of starvation in the space of 6 months. Apparently the keepers were feeding them cheap chicken pieces because the zoo was short of money. The institution was also accused of providing tiger bones and penises to manufacturers of traditional chinese medicines (despite being a ban on such kind of trade). One of the zoo employees actually stated that since 2000 around 40 to 50 tigers died in the zoo and the fact that their bones were being used to produce tiger-bone-wine was something pretty much everybody knew. The zoo spended more money on the purchase and maintenance of freezers (used to preserve saleable tiger parts) than on the food required by the felines.
Sadly this situation seems to be quite common in China, around 6,000 to 10,000 animals are currently being sheltered by institutions that only pose as breeding centers (their real objective being the farming and marketing of animal parts). The investigation started by the authorities will also examine the situation in which other captive-breeding business are. The paper actually discovered that more than 1,000 captive tigers are in danger of sufering malnourishment.
One of the problems lies within the fact that China has no laws against animal cruelty and the government does not supervise breeding centers. Therefore anyone with enough funds can build a zoo or a wildlife park and do whatever they please with the animals in it. Nevertheless, the government announced that captive breeding system will be re-evaluated if the investigation reveals such abuse to be happening in other centers.
I personally consider this to be awful news. The Chinese government really ought to regularly inspect zoos (specially the ones sheltering endangered species). I also think Chinese people should think about the effect that some of their traditions have on animal welfare (after all, animal parts trade survives because of the public’s demand). I do realize however how difficult this is.
PS: Here's the Link to the news item -> http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/mar/17/chinese-zoo-tiger
PS2: I guess I'll ask Nacho and Simon to review this. Tere is welcome to do so too of course!! =D
~
domingo, 6 de junio de 2010
~~ Our Faculty ~~
I consider that our faculty has several infrastructure problems. Currently the faculty has 2 computer labs, 1 cafeteria, 1 library and 1 common area for the students to just spend their time. Considering this, there are some things that need improvement.
First of all there is the space problem. Our common areas are to small and do not have the capacity to shelter all the students in the faculty. For example, the cafeteria. If we take into account the number of students the faculty has, then it becomes quite obvious that the cafeteria does not provide enough space for everyone. It’s small which forces a lot of students to have their lunch in the campus outdoor areas, this is not a big deal during summer, but when winter comes and temperature strats to decrease and rain becomes more frequent then it does become an issue. We have the same problem with the library, like the cafeteria, the library is way to small, I don’t think that it has room for more than 70 people, so te problem is the same, students then have to study outdoors. Then, there’s the common area issue. The faculty has only one common area for students, it is located between to the xerox machines and the student council and is – quite frankly- ridiculously small. The common area only has one couch (usually used by the faculty dogs), one coffee table and one TV that apparently, is broken. So when it rains, student’s only choices for shelter are the cafeteria and the library which I already established are to small.
Another big problem we have is that we don’t have anything to distract ourselves with. The cafeteria used to have pool tables and some video games, but they were all removed after some parents made a complaint about them, stating that the games would distract us from our studies. I considered the measure to be extremely unfair (students need distractions!, we are not robots!).
Lastly, I have to mention the cafeteria again. This time my complaint is not about the space, it’s about the food. The cafeteria serves and extremely monotonous and expensive menu. We should have more options and the hygiene with which meals are prepared also needs to improve.
In order to improve all of these things the faculty should probably invest money in the construction of new common areas as well as in the enlargement of the cafeteria and library. I think this would bring a lot of benefits to the students. For example, if students have more places to be in, then the library would not be so cramped and it would be a lot more pleasant to study there.
~
First of all there is the space problem. Our common areas are to small and do not have the capacity to shelter all the students in the faculty. For example, the cafeteria. If we take into account the number of students the faculty has, then it becomes quite obvious that the cafeteria does not provide enough space for everyone. It’s small which forces a lot of students to have their lunch in the campus outdoor areas, this is not a big deal during summer, but when winter comes and temperature strats to decrease and rain becomes more frequent then it does become an issue. We have the same problem with the library, like the cafeteria, the library is way to small, I don’t think that it has room for more than 70 people, so te problem is the same, students then have to study outdoors. Then, there’s the common area issue. The faculty has only one common area for students, it is located between to the xerox machines and the student council and is – quite frankly- ridiculously small. The common area only has one couch (usually used by the faculty dogs), one coffee table and one TV that apparently, is broken. So when it rains, student’s only choices for shelter are the cafeteria and the library which I already established are to small.
Another big problem we have is that we don’t have anything to distract ourselves with. The cafeteria used to have pool tables and some video games, but they were all removed after some parents made a complaint about them, stating that the games would distract us from our studies. I considered the measure to be extremely unfair (students need distractions!, we are not robots!).
Lastly, I have to mention the cafeteria again. This time my complaint is not about the space, it’s about the food. The cafeteria serves and extremely monotonous and expensive menu. We should have more options and the hygiene with which meals are prepared also needs to improve.
In order to improve all of these things the faculty should probably invest money in the construction of new common areas as well as in the enlargement of the cafeteria and library. I think this would bring a lot of benefits to the students. For example, if students have more places to be in, then the library would not be so cramped and it would be a lot more pleasant to study there.
~
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