A known rabies case affecting an acquaintance or your neighborhood always gets attention. The disease is incurable and is spread by wild animals. Today is World Rabies Day, a good time to spread the word, to help stop the virus.
There are easy ways to keep rabies at bay. The first is to vaccinate your dogs and cats, as required by law, and to keep those vaccinations up to date. Thereafter, if your pet comes into contact with a rabid animal, there is much less danger to the pet, and to the humans who care for it. Booster shots eliminate that small risk.
The other easy way is to be sure that all of your pets are spayed and neutered. Otherwise (say if your male dog or cat connects with a feral female of its species), feral colonies spring up, unvaccinated, reproducing rapidly, and at risk for every peril that can be faced, from starvation, to disease, to vehicle hits, to fights and predation with other species, and yes, to rabies.
Rabies cases
Brendan Rivenbark, director of Three Rivers H...