RABIES UPDATE
From ANIMAL PEOPLE, June 1995:
A rabid raccoon bit Samantha
Sorochinski, age 2, on May 5 in West Milford,
New York, prompting New York, New Jersey,
and Connecticut authorities to remind the public that
the mid-Atlantic raccoon rabies pandemic, which
crested three to four years ago, has not gone away.
Peruvian Health Ministry staff on May
8 began a 40-day drive to poison an estimated
90,000 stray dogs in Lima, the national capitol, to
reduce the risk of rabies.
“Our campaign to get Israel to switch
from using strychnine poisoning for rabies control
to using the oral rabies vaccine is nearing a success-
ful end,” says Nina Natelson of Concern for
Helping Animals in Israel. “Dr. Amnon Shimshony,
head of the Veterinary Services Department within
Israel’s Agriculture Ministry, announced April 25
that he has sent 13 jackals and foxes vaccinated with
the oral vaccine to France, ‘where the vaccine will
be tested by infecting them with rabies. If the bait is
ound suitable for Israel’s wild animal population, it
will be mass-distributed in areas which are densely
populated by foxes and jackals.'” The Israeli project
would be coordinated with Shimshony’s counterpart
in Jordan, Dr. Mouchlas Amrin, Natelson said,
and the vaccine would be distributed simultaneously
in both nations. CHAI long ago ended use of
strychnine to kill animals in Israeli shelters by giv-
ing free sodium pentobarbitol “to every pound in the
country for one year,” Natelson continued. “To my
knowledge, none used strychnine after that, but
many municipalities continued to use poison in the
fields and streets.”
