New challenges in our career

Veterinary Science is a hard career to deal with in all matters. I think we have plenty of challenges and things to change, in order to give our career the value and respect that deserves. On the Technology side, I don't have a specific suggestion for it. In Chile, it's very common to find private clinics everywhere, and it really depends on the veterinarian if he or she wants to have more technology to receive their patients. One thing I should mention is to have a clinic with a better quality and variety of their medical tools. I suppose I'm talking about a big clinic that's organized with enough veterinarians and technology. It's hard to solve this problem because our main concerns as a country have a priority for human problems, so to help animals and to create a clinic with better technology are difficult to afford. And the only thing we can do is to assign money to this purpose (considering how expensive technology is).

About social matters, I think it's very connected to education, because it's becoming harder and harder to be a veterinarian (at least in Chile). We all know that our career is not socially recognized as much as we want it to be. I think this is mainly because there's not enough respect for the career. In comparison to other countries where it lasts 7 or 8 years, here the career is based on five years only. Believe it or not, I think that it does give the career a little bit of respect. Another reason is, like I've mentioned before, that our country has other priorities right now, so everything related to the veterinary area is kind of left out (We need to decrease poverty, education issues, among others).

Chile has way too many colleges in Chile that offer Veterinary Science, and I don't think we need that amount in this country (about 30 or so). In my opinion, the veterinary area is "over studied" here. In the end, this gives us less chance for finding jobs once we're done. A clear solution should have a decrease in the amount of colleges that offer the career, with authorities being more strict, and giving it the importance it needs.

Hippopotamus and other exotic animals on menu at Beijing zoo

The article I read is about a zoo that doesn't allow visitors to feed their animals, but they are encouraged to eat them at a restaurant that offers crocodile and scorpions on its exotic menu. This was reported by the legal Daily newspaper. How could you eat them after watching them in their cages!

The International Fund for Animal Welfare said that "It was inappropiate for zoos to sell such items, and that this is socially irresponsable."

Zoo's purposes should encourage people to love and protect animals, and of course, to know more about them, so it doesn't make sense at all.

Chang Jiwen, a legal expert at the China Academy of Social Sciences is struggling for an animal protection law, agreeing that it is legal for them to do that, but definitely not appropiate and it should be against all zoo missions.

People who have found about this have been giving their opinions online, and disagreeing with what the zoo is doing.

The owners of the restaurant said that the meat they use is from exotic animal farms, and that these animals have been sold from long ago with full approval of the authorities.

Despite all this bad situation, staff has said that they'll check the menu again, which includes a variety of exotic animals such as the peacock, and ostrich egg.

(Dishes cost 10-100 euros).

Finally, the article says that it's necessary to be critical with these situations, in order to make changes.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2010/may/21/exotic-animals-beijing-zoo-menu

Improving our Faculty

The current situation in our faculty regarding the facilities doesn't have extraordinary things, I mean, we have bathrooms, a library, places to buy daily groceries, and a cafeteria. I must admit that a great thing to have is air conditioning and heaters inside the classrooms. This is something new, though, because students from 2 or 3 years ago didn't have it.

What I think needs improvement is first of all, the cafeteria. It's not really a cafeteria because it doesn't have all the required things that one of those has, and the prices aren't cheap at all. I think we need a new place to eat, or improve the current one. The food isn't always the best either, and you don't have many choices (a different menu that you can choose). And second, I think that we need at least one room for studying with groups, so we can speak out loud. Instead, we use the library for this, and sometimes it bothers others who are studying in silence.

To deal with the first thing, I usually bring my own food from home, and in some cases I just buy a sandwich in the kiosk (stand). Or, the last option is to buy a soup that you can make with water (when desperate, haha). But I try to do the first one as much as I possibly can. To deal with the second thing I think needs to be improved, is to either have a study group on the grass (which is not as silent as you want because you can find people who are trying to relax there, or they're talking about other things, so it gets harder to study), or study silently in the library by yourself, and then sharing with your partners afterwards.

The real benefits that you could get from having a better cafeteria is that you don't necessarily have to bring lunch everyday. I could buy food, if necessary, especially when there's a lot to do, and there's not much time left. And it'd also be cheaper, so it wouldn't cost as much money, either. And the impacts of having a new place to study is that students could study silently in the library, while others can share their thoughts and ideas in a special room for speaking loud. I really think this is important because we've been scolded several times for being noisy in the library. Besides, this can reduce the number of people who want to use the computers, and the ones who want to study only (it'd be less crowded, too).

To start this out, the students must agree with the things we need to improve first, and then move forward to talking to authorities, and organizing the money and possibilites to do it. I think the first one (Cafeteria) is very needed and has been asked by the students for quite a while now.

We know that, in order to make all the improvements we need, we have to organize ourselves as students, we have the right to give our opinion and say what we need, because, in the end, all these things are made and paid for us and our parents (in most cases), respectively.