June 9th – After many years of complaints by various veterinarians and animal clinics on the problematic issues of counterfeit drugs being illegally sold to pet owners and harming the health of animals over a long term, measures were taken recently. Mr. Teerayuth Suthijak, Veterinary Practitioner of the Division of Inspectorate and Quarantine, along with Mr. Surachet Ungwijarnbanya, Specialized Veterinarian of the Chonburi Livestock Office, lead a team of police officers from Pattaya Police Station to search 4 shops that sells these sort of medication. These 4 shops were Star Dog, Dog Enjoy, Super Dog, and Dog Station, all of which were set up around the heart of the city on 3rd Road, Pattaya Klang. These shops were under investigation after the reports of finding counterfeit antibiotics, shampoo, and tick and flea repellents, in which these products were not up to standards and are illegal. The products are worth of several thousands of baht and are being with-held while the shop owners were under arrest.
Several of these fake drugs are sold every day to treat various things that happen to our pets, most commonly are ticks, fleas, and heart conditions. These drugs can have a very devastating effect on the animal’s bodies, including shortening their life span drastically. These illegal problems have been going on for several years and up till today there were no real solution in solving them, allowing the issues to grow worse over time. While people’s pets fall sic every time, the counterfeit drug businesses bloom with a turnover estimated of ten million baht.
Mr. Teerayuth stated that currently there are many unregistered drugs sold to treat sick pets most often due to operators not checking on the quality of the products properly. Resulting is products that are not up to standards being greenlit and sold into the market, they cause various serious health effects to animals directly. Not only that but there are also known problems of animals becoming more and more resistant to the effects of drugs, making treatments hard and ineffective. However it may be right now, to create the trust with the public and the consumers Department of Livestock, there are standards in protection and control of food and medication for animals set up to actively test and prevent bad products from being sold in shops in the city. Eventually, with the positive results, the quality control will spread and work in cooperation with other departments.
