Abstract
Owning a dog has become more and more common in contemporary Taiwanese household. To become a “standard owner,” one has to acquire a whole pack of knowledge from veterinarians, the media, and dog-loving communities, among which regular vaccination program is the most basic routine. According to the general regulation, dogs have to go through quite a significant amount of vaccination during their life span. Although the purpose of regular vaccination is to maintain dogs’ health and to prevent outbreaks of contagious diseases, the risks and side effects of canine vaccination has gradually arouse controversy. In Taiwan, the development and doctor-patient relationship of small animal veterinarian could also affect the stability of the technical network of canine vaccination, which also involves other actants such as the human-dog relationship, pharmaceutical companies and dog food companies. Beside pet dogs, we can also easily encounter street dogs or school dogs on campus in Taiwan. These three kinds of dogs have their own story to tell, and by telling their stories, we will find that dogs are not a homogeneous collective, but full of heterogeneity. In their stories, they can unveil their agency more or less: they do not merely play a passive part in human-dog relationship, but can actively influence other actors like human being. This paper uses Actor Network Theory as the main approach, since it can not only show the strength of humans as well as non-humans in the story to tell, but also transcend the dichotomy and opposition that follows between culture/nature, society/science and etc. in traditional animal-centered discourses. I will further discuss on the one hand the new ways of thinking STS (Science, Technology and Society) studies can bring for animal studies, and on the other hand, how the theme of animal studies can provoke the idea of cosmopolitics, so that I can generate helpful policy-making suggestions for the street dog problem in Taiwan.