Nuffnang

Saturday, September 19, 2015

RABIES - VACCINATION IS THE ONLY WAY

It is very sad to see that there are a large number of people that are unaware of the concerted efforts that have been taken by animal welfare organisations as well as individuals to trap, vaccinate, spay and neuter, and rehome (as far as possible) or otherwise release these dogs to areas with designated feeders and carers.

Most of us use our own resources for this with no funding from the authorities because the authorities do not want to invest in long term, sustainable solutions to the stray management issue. Because if they did, then there would be no more strays for them to catch, and therefore there would be no more dog catching contractors and therefore no more money to be made.

Please bear in mind that the councils all over the country have been catching and killing dogs barbarically for years, and yet the stray population is rampant. I shall not go into the details of why it doesn't work in this thread but clearly this shows that catching and killing does not work to reduce the stray population at all.

This culling spree will do nothing to eradicate rabies. Mission rabies have been actively vaccinating dogs across the world to stop the spread of the disease.

There is alot of information on this on the Mission Rabies website, among many other websites, on how to stop rabies spreading.

Mission Rabies (http://www.missionrabies.com/) collaborates with many rescues centres, shelters and animal welfare organisations across the world, one of which is The Mayhew Animal Home in the UK, where I used to volunteer for 2 years previously. And during my time there, I have learnt many things, and one of which is disease control and stray population control, where it was very clear that mass cullings or even systematic culling will not resolve these issues.

"Killing dogs has been scientifically proven to have no effect on rabies transmission or overall population, since new dogs quickly move into the area where killing has taken place to take advantage of the increased food resources and territory. This mixing of new dogs may even increase the risk of rabies due to fighting over territory and mates.

By vaccinating at least 70% of a stable population of dogs in the local area, they act as a barrier to disease transmission and stop rabies in its tracks, this protecting the people in that area from the disease. A healthy, vaccinated street dog population is the best protection for people from rabies." - Mission Rabies

Additionally, instead of spreading fear, people should be made aware of two very important facts (source WHO - http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs099/en/), so that they are aware of what to do should they get bitten by a rabid animal.

1. Immediate wound cleansing with soap and water after contact with a suspect rabid animal can be life-saving.
2. Every year, more than 15 million people worldwide receive a post-bite vaccination to prevent the disease; this is estimated to prevent hundreds of thousands of rabies deaths annually.

No comments:

Post a Comment