[HN Gopher] US bans dog imports from more than 100 countries
       ___________________________________________________________________
        
       US bans dog imports from more than 100 countries
        
       Author : Black101
       Score  : 36 points
       Date   : 2021-06-14 22:15 UTC (44 minutes ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (www.bbc.com)
 (TXT) w3m dump (www.bbc.com)
        
       | aluminum96 wrote:
       | I have always wondered why rabies vaccination is not given
       | standard in childhood.
       | 
       | Rabies is incredibly scary -- you camp outside, a bat nips you in
       | your sleep, and by the time you know anything has happened, it's
       | too late.
        
         | Carioca wrote:
         | Basically, because we don't want to give kids unnecessary
         | vaccines (contrary to what _some_ people say). We don't give
         | yellow fever vaccines to everyone, only to people in high-risk
         | areas.
         | 
         | Also, post-exposure treatment is almost 100% effective, so the
         | vaccine goes down in priority
        
           | wnevets wrote:
           | >Also, post-exposure treatment is almost 100% effective,
           | 
           | Only if you know about the exposure before symptoms appear.
           | In the parent's example you don't realize you were actually
           | bit by a bat in your sleep.
        
             | nexuist wrote:
             | I suppose it is possible, but is it really likely that
             | you'll get bitten by a bat who draws blood and not wake up
             | to the pain of such a bite? Is it likely you'll even get
             | bitten by a bat at all? I thought you have to really fuck
             | with them and be in like a cave or something to be exposed
             | to that kind of risk. I mean, they hang upside down from
             | high vantage points right? Unless you're sleeping in a tree
             | and also flailing around your hands to try to beat the shit
             | out of a bat in your sleep, I don't think any bat would
             | come near you let alone attempt to bite your skin, _let
             | alone_ when you 're just laying down and not moving around
             | much.
        
               | wearywanderer wrote:
               | Vampire bats specialized in drawing blood from sleeping
               | victims without waking them. It is rare for them to find
               | human targets, but it happens sometimes:
               | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vampire_bat#Human_health
        
               | alisonkisk wrote:
               | Not every one is super informed and insured. Millions of
               | people would wait it out a while before seeking care.
        
         | bsder wrote:
         | > I have always wondered why rabies vaccination is not given
         | standard in childhood.
         | 
         | Because the side effects from the rabies vaccine are far more
         | likely than you getting rabies unknowingly in the US.
         | 
         | We're talking 25 total cases from 2009 to 2018--about 2 per
         | year.
         | 
         | If you start jabbing a couple million children willy-nilly, 1
         | or 2 of them will die of anaphylaxis or a secondary infection
         | from the needle prick every year on the best of vaccines. And
         | rabies vaccines aren't particularly modern or sophisticated.
        
         | benatkin wrote:
         | The number of human rabies cases in the US for humans is so
         | incredibly low.
         | 
         | You're more than ten times as likely to die of E. coli.
         | 
         | https://www.cdc.gov/rabies/location/usa/surveillance/human_r...
        
         | lesuorac wrote:
         | The vaccine doesn't last your lifetime, you get a booster when
         | exposed [1], and is super expensive (in US it's ~$1000 [2]).
         | 
         | But about the article, if < 0.05% of dogs have fake rabies
         | certificates out of millions of dogs is this actually a
         | problem? (Not to condone the behavior) Just because your dog
         | doesn't have a rabies vaccine doesn't mean it does has rabies.
         | 
         | [1]:
         | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rabies_vaccine#After_exposure
         | [2]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rabies_vaccine#Cost
        
           | maxk42 wrote:
           | Wouldn't a simpler solution just be to ask people importing
           | dogs to get them a new rabies vaccination?
        
           | alisonkisk wrote:
           | It's only expensive in USA because USA human healthcare
           | system is crazy. It's EUR100 for humans in Europe, and it's
           | cheap enough to give to every domestic dog several times.
        
         | wearywanderer wrote:
         | In America [and most other countries that have done a similarly
         | good or better job of suppressing rabies] the wildlife are the
         | ones getting vaccinated against it. Vaccinating the wildlife by
         | baiting them with an oral vaccine is very effective and can
         | eradicate rabies from a region (vaccinating the general public
         | cannot do that, since person-to-person transmission is not
         | really the concern.)
        
       | Black101 wrote:
       | They should ban traveling too because I have heard of many fake
       | vaccine certificates...
        
         | kayodelycaon wrote:
         | Rabies is a lot more lethal and it's fortunately very rare in
         | the US. The ban makes a lot of sense to me.
        
           | savant_penguin wrote:
           | 25 cases in a decade
           | 
           | You are more likely to die by crossing the street
        
       | h2odragon wrote:
       | High-Risk Dog Ban FRN : https://www.cdc.gov/importation/bringing-
       | an-animal-into-the-...
       | 
       | The list of countries: https://www.cdc.gov/importation/bringing-
       | an-animal-into-the-...
        
         | elliekelly wrote:
         | Off topic but what an odd an inefficient way to organized and
         | display the information. A bullet point list of countries
         | grouped by continent (sort of?) and then one bullet point per
         | first letter of country name.
         | 
         | > Asia and the Middle East, Eastern Europe
         | 
         | > * Afghanistan, Armenia, Azerbaijan
         | 
         | > * Bangladesh, Belarus, Bhutan, Brunei
        
         | hirundo wrote:
         | It includes India, China, Indonesia, Pakistan, Brazil and
         | Russia, or most of the world by population. The largest nation
         | in population not included is the U.S. itself. The next largest
         | is Mexico at #10. So 8 of the 10 most populous countries are on
         | the list, and one isn't eligible.
        
           | fra wrote:
           | > Probably most of the dogs too
           | 
           | TFA says that those countries represent 6% of dog imports.
        
             | alisonkisk wrote:
             | So where _do_ imported dogs come from? Canada?
             | 
             | Also,
             | 
             | > Hundreds of these dogs had fraudulent rabies
             | certificates,
             | 
             | Isn't this most easily fixed by requiring a post-
             | immigration rabies shot?
        
               | jcranmer wrote:
               | I assume it's mostly people who treat their pets as
               | children, which is largely a Western phenomenon. So,
               | yeah, Canada's probably a large source, as would be most
               | of Western Europe.
        
               | makomk wrote:
               | Probably people moving to the US from places like Europe
               | (which is quite big, even though the individual countries
               | in it are small - I know the US press used the small size
               | of individual countries to play some slimy games with
               | their Covid-19 related comparisons from time to time).
        
             | johncessna wrote:
             | There's, apparently, a really interesting world of dog
             | importing. I wonder if this was the paper that prompted
             | this decision.
             | 
             | http://www.naiaonline.org/uploads/WhitePapers/USDA_DogImpor
             | t...
        
           | [deleted]
        
           | jlawer wrote:
           | I think you will find that dog (pet) importation is more
           | highly correlated with higher income, thus while the highest
           | population countries are listed, in % wise, higher migration
           | will be from Europe.
           | 
           | In outside the covid pandemic, I think you will find that
           | there is significant international travel for breeding and
           | show purposes. Additionally, while I am unsure of the cost in
           | the US, in a place like Australia the quarantine costs to
           | bring pets into the country make it something more likely to
           | be done by wealthier migrants.
        
       | wearywanderer wrote:
       | There are so many dogs already in America, I see absolutely no
       | reason to ever import more.
        
       | bsder wrote:
       | I don't know why we don't have a permanent ban on this anyway. We
       | don't need to be supporting overseas puppy mills.
       | 
       | We have more than enough dogs in the US to adopt.
        
         | version_five wrote:
         | I think a major use may be people relocating to the US with
         | their dogs.
        
           | johncessna wrote:
           | Those folks can still apply for a permit. Service dogs and
           | dogs brought for 'or science, education, or exhibition' can
           | also still get import permits.
        
         | debacle wrote:
         | More than enough puppy mills as well, and amateur breeders that
         | have no idea what they are doing. Leads to very brutal lives
         | for the mothers (who do not receive adequate healthcare), and
         | dogs with serious socialization issues.
         | 
         | I used to think pit bulls all had anxiety issues. Two years
         | after adopting a rescue (not a pit bull), I think it's much
         | more likely that most pit bull breeders do little to nothing to
         | properly socialize those dogs in their early months.
        
       | johncessna wrote:
       | For those who are curious which countries are affected and
       | incorrectly thought the information would be the article:
       | 
       | https://www.cdc.gov/importation/bringing-an-animal-into-the-...
        
       ___________________________________________________________________
       (page generated 2021-06-14 23:00 UTC)