 Barked: Tue Jan 8, '13 11:48am PST |
 | |  | | The law is very stern about the rabies issue not on the front of dog welfare, but on community safety. It's sort of one of the necessities if you are to legally keep your pet. Some choose to fly under the radar....I certainly did with my GSD, Pogo, who did not tolerate vaccines well and was not well himself...but it is part of responsible dog ownership generally.
There is little you can do to keep your dog safe from a rabid animal if they are at all outside unsupervised, if they go off lead, or at night, as bats are also rabies carriers.
Rabies is fascinating (to me, anyway....but parasites fascinate me, lol) in that it essentially takes over the brain in an attempt to ensure its (the viruses) survival before its host succumbs. Rabid animals can become very bold. Many lose inhibition entirely and will wander into populated neighborhoods and even act rather friendly. Or in more advanced stages of the disease, highly aggressive.
In other words, no amount of assuring oneself that their unvaccinated pet is safe, save for covering all bases by your animal never, ever being unattended or out at night, is sound, as what you are assuming you have control over (rabid animals in your environment) are behaving anywhere from uncharacteristically to flat out insane. You can't track or anticipate an insane person. Nor can you do so to an infected animal, who are engineered through the virus to find a ready source to sustain the virus and pass it on.
HERE is a video of a rabid coon who has chased a van and is currently trying to attack a burro and her foal, and a cow. Burros can be used, just to make it clear, as LGDs to chase wolves away. The filmers started to put together this was not a bold coon, but a rabid animal and (off the video) did shoot this animal. A rabid animal is unmanageable, unstoppable save for a bullet to the head, and can and will infiltrate areas seldom if ever seen. You cannot predict them, and if they show up, it is not a scene you can control without lethal force, the time it takes to grab such an implement time enough for you or your dog to get bitten.
It's rare, but if you are in the wrong place at the wrong time, your ability to control the situation is close to zero. As a human, you can perceive uncharacteristic behavior and respond, but an unsupervised dog will be naturally drawn to a rabid animal...their behavior is very provocative.Edited by author Tue Jan 8, '13 11:57am PST
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But Kally has had back problems for many years - not just a new or "old age" problem.
