What’s stupider than rehoming rabid pit bull puppies? Denying the risk.

Denying rabies risk is not likely to help win much-needed protection for Colorado pumas & bobcats,  either

         SHERIDAN,  Colorado––The August 7,  2024 discovery of rabies in a litter of pit bull mix puppies rehomed as “shepherd mixes” on July 20,  2024 by Moms & Mutts Colorado should have sent a “heads up” warning to the entire animal rescue and advocacy community.

Moms & Mutts,  incidentally,  is no small fly-by-night mom-and-pop rescue.  Founded in 2017,  it raised $2.5 million in 2022 according to IRS Form 990.

But few people in animal rescue and advocacy appear to have heeded the warning.

Denial of risk prevailed,  not only from Moms & Mutts Colorado founder Aron Jones in public statements after 11 puppies known to have had exposure were euthanized by order of the Colorado Department of Public Health & Environment,  but also from Wayne Pacelle,  president of both Animal Wellness Action & the Center for A Humane Economy.

How to lose trust on public safety issues

Both organizations are currently active in Colorado in support of the “Cats Aren’t Trophies” ballot initiative to stop trophy hunting and trapping of pumas and bobcats,  going before Colorado voters on November 5,  2024.

Note to Pacelle:  if you want voters to take your side on an issue that your opposition is trying to depict as a public safety issue,  act as if you give a damn about an authentic public safety issue occurring in the same venue.

(See Pumas, pit bulls, furriers & slaughterhouse all on 2024 Colorado ballot and Rare “staggering disease” found in a Colorado mountain lion.)

Came to Colorado from Texas

“The rabies-positive puppy came to Colorado from Texas,”  KDVR television news in Denver reported.

“Jones said the puppies were surrendered by their former owner who lives near Dallas,  and it’s believed a dead skunk had been found on the property.”

Jones told KDVR that “The puppy had tested negative for distemper,  and we knew that the [skunk] remains had been sent for rabies testing,  which takes less than 24 hours,  and we did not receive any calls or anything,”  so Moms & Mutts Colorado presumed the skunk had tested negative,  overlooking that no news does not mean good news.

Rabid skunk remains “lost in transit”?

Continued KDVR,  “Jones said she learned later the remains of the skunk had been lost in transit,  which was why it took so long to find out the results.

Warned the Colorado Department of Public Health & Environment in an August 9,  2024 media release,  “Anyone who interacted with the puppies should contact public health officials to determine if they need to receive prophylaxis.”

Offered Tam Garland,  retired head of the toxicology section at the Texas A&M Veterinary Medical Diagnostic Laboratory,  via the ProMED [Program for Monitoring Emerging Diseases] alert listserv,  “The puppy was one of 11 in the litter.  None of the puppies were vaccinated at the time of exposure.

No post-exposure rabies treatment for dogs

“There are no licensed products for post-exposure prophylaxis of unvaccinated domestic animals,  and evidence shows a vaccine will not prevent the disease in these animals,  the Colorado Department of Public Health & Environment said.

“Most likely the puppies were too young for the [anti-rabies] vaccine as their immune systems were not mature enough.”

Rachel Saurer of KDVR,  in a tear-jerking follow-up,  interviewed a couple who reluctantly surrendered their recently adopted Moms & Mutts Colorado puppy for euthanasia.

Rabies is transmitted by saliva

“As I handed off [the puppy] to this person who was vaccinated,”  one of the couple told Saurer,  the puppy “licked his face.”

Heads up again!  Rabies is transmitted by saliva,  most often transmitted from dogs to humans by biting,  but also transmitted by infected mothers grooming their puppies,  and sometimes transmitted to humans by dogs licking an open wound,  such as nick from shaving.

Facial transmission is especially dangerous,  because the shorter the distance the rabies virus has to travel in the bloodstream to reach the victim’s brain,  the less time the victim has to obtain post-exposure vaccination,  including the booster recommended for people who have previously been vaccinated.

Super-rare ignorance,  we hope

“This is a super-rare,  super-isolated incident,”  Jones told Saurer.

But no;  it was neither rare,  nor isolated.

ProMED has documented many cases of rescues translocating rabid animals and exposing members of the public during the past ten years,  including a 2015 case in Colorado Springs involving a kitten adopted via Craigslist.

“There was nothing we could have done to prevent it,”  said Jones,  except of course waiting for the rabies test results on the skunk,  and maybe not translocating puppies too young to be vaccinated in the first place.

Translocating pit bull puppies at all is considered high-risk by most insurance companies.

Altogether,  the Colorado Department of Public Health & Environment recommended post-exposure prophylaxis for 17 people who had close contact with the puppies,  including foster families,  veterinary staff,  and shelter staff.

Wayne Pacelle sounds off

With the Colorado rabies episode in the immediate background,  Animal Wellness Action on August 15,  2024 distributed an emailed appeal,  signed by Wayne Pacelle,  headlined “CDC has haywire risk assessments for zoonotic disease relating to mink farms,  cockfighting,  and dog imports.”

The first subsection of the appeal,  captioned “Mink Farms Threaten to Spread Bird Flu and COVID Variants,”  accurately explained that “During the height of the COVID crisis,  mink farms in Europe and the United States incubated at least five new variants of SARS-CoV-2.  But even though a third of U.S. farms had infections, the Centers for Disease Control has set up no protocols for even inspecting the farms in our homeland.”

Mixes up jurisdictions

That would actually be the jurisdiction of the USDA Animal & Plant Health Inspection Service,  but regardless of which agency takes the lead,  the U.S. is remiss in not having shut down mink farming entirely,  as most mink-producing nations in Europe did years ago,  both to stop the evolution of new and potentially more deadly COVID strains,  and––as in the Netherlands––for humane reasons.

Pacelle asked recipients of the appeal to write to their Congressional Representatives in support of HR 7670,  a pending bill titled the “MINKS in Narrowly Kept Spaces (MINKS) Are Superspreaders Act.”

Pacelle was right again on cockfighting

“Then There’s Cockfighting and Avian Diseases,”  Pacelle continued.  “Smuggling of cockfighting birds from Mexico was the cause of 10 of 15 outbreaks of virulent Newcastle Disease — also a form of bird flu — to hit the U.S. in recent decades.

“And in Asia,  we know cockfighting played a role in spreading H5N1 (‘bird flu’), which has a 53% mortality rate — 100 times more deadly than COVID-19.”

Pacelle than asked recipients of the appeal to write to their Congressional Representatives in support of the “Fighting Inhumane Gambling and High-Risk Trafficking (FIGHT) Act,”  pending as H.R. 2742 and S. 1529.

Then Pacelle stepped in dog poop

But then Pacelle alleged that,  “While CDC Ignores Animal Exploitation Industries,  It’s Overreached on Dog Imports.”

Complained Pacelle,  “just weeks ago,  CDC imposed import standards,  under the banner of rabies prevention,  for dogs coming into the country that threaten to separate people from their pets,”  which is improbable to begin with for anyone who is in compliance with world standards for international transportation of dogs.

As ANIMALS 24-7 explained on May 10,  2024,  in response to a comparably hyperbolic misrepresentation of the new CDC dog import standards from the Humane Society of the U.S.,  (see New rabies prevention rules for “rescue” puppy imports; HSUS squawks),  all the CDC is actually doing is bringing the previously lax U.S. dog import rules into compliance with global norms.

Bellyaching

The CDC subsequently eased the originally proposed requirements,  announcing that,  “Beginning August 1, 2024,  dogs entering the U.S. from countries that are free of canine rabies or considered to present a low risk of cross-border transmission can now enter the country if their owners fill out an import form.”

Bellyached Pacelle,  even without having received a post-exposure rabies vaccination needle,  an experience some victims liken to suffering hara-kiri,  also known as seppuku,  “Some international dog rescue organizations are shutting down.  In fact,  several major airlines have said they are halting shipments of dogs because of their onerous new rules,”  though they would have to observe essentially the same rules if landing in the United Kingdom,  European Union,  or Japan.

Rescue angels have imported rabies into the U.S. at least four times in 10 years

“CDC justified this policy ,”  Pacelle rattled on,  “because it says dogs can import rabies into the United States.  But even under the prior set of policies,  not a single rabid dog got into the country.”

The latter statement is a whopper worthy of Donald Trump,  who committed 162 lies and distortions in his 64-minute August 11,  2024 media conference,  according to the National Public Radio fact-checkers.

U.S.-based animal rescues imported at least three rabid dogs from Egypt and one from Azerbaijan between 2015 and 2020,  during which time frame the CDC caught 450 dogs entering the U.S. with forged rabies certificates.

U.S. canine rabies vaccination rate is below that of Vietnam––a rabies-endemic nation

The canine rabies vaccination rate in the U.S. is now as low as 52%,  far below the 70% minimum needed to prevent a rabies outbreak from spreading,  and significantly below the current norm even in some nations that still have endemic rabies.

Vietnam,  for instance,  engaged with the Soi Dog Foundation of Thailand in a national rabies eradication effort,  claims a national canine rabies vaccination rate of 58%,  though ranging by district from 10% to 90%.

Also critical to realize––as Tam Garland pointed out with specific reference to the Moms & Mutts Colorado case––vaccinating a puppy under six months of age conveys no immunity,  because the puppy’s immune system is not yet mature enough to produce anti-rabies antibodies.

Dumb rabies & dumber people

Likewise,  vaccinating a dog if the cold chain on the vaccine has been broken,  a frequent problem in the developing world,  does nothing,  because rabies vaccines are extremely temperature-sensitive.

Finally,  there is no way to know whether a canine rabies vaccination has been effective without a quarantine because dogs can have and spread “dumb rabies,” meaning rabies without visible symptoms,  for weeks and even months.

Exposure to “dumb rabies” is most often how rabies fatalities occur.  The victims typically never know they were exposed until too late.

         (See Rabid street dog or hungry pit bull: if at risk, get help! and note especially the story of Philippine teenager Jamaica Star Seraspe.)

Batshit crazy

“And remember,”  Pacelle intoned,  “rabies is already present in bats and other wild animals in our country,  so our nation is already not ‘rabies free.’”

The U.S. has,  however,  been free of canine rabies of domestic origin since 2004.

Canine rabies accounts for approximately 99% of all human rabies deaths on record in the U.S. as well as worldwide,  for the fairly obvious reason that dogs are in nearly half of all human households.

Rabid bats are almost exclusively air-feeding insectivores who have little or no proximity to humans.  Among species native to the U.S.,  raccoons,  foxes,  and skunks also carry endemic rabies strains,  sometimes transmitted to dogs and cats,  who then may infect humans,  but humans normally have little or no direct contact with raccoons,  foxes,  or skunks.

Low compliance with dog licensing

“Local and state government policies requiring dog vaccinations are ubiquitous already,”  Pacelle contended,  but rabies vaccination requirements are usually attached to licensing requirements,  which are notoriously poorly enforced.

“Anna Umansky,  co-founder of Sochi Dogs,  a U.S.-based international nonprofit organization that rescues homeless and abandoned dogs around the globe,”  Pacelle finished,  “says the CDC import rules have disabled the charity from its humanitarian and animal welfare work in war-torn Ukraine.”

What Pacelle did not mention is that Ukraine had already been fighting endemic fox rabies,  frequently spreading into dogs,  for 18 years before the 2022 Russian invasion stopped all progress,  making Ukraine one of the most high-risk nations from which a rescue could import dogs.

Four-year-old dies despite treatment

A reminder of the seriousness of the rabies issue meanwhile came from the Chengalpattu Government Medical College Hospital of Tamil Nadu state,  India,  where on August 14,  2024 a four-year-old boy from Arkonam,  Ranipet district,  died after suffering since June 27,  2024 from a rabid dog bite.

Post-exposure treatment failed to save the boy.

“According to Tamil Nadu Public Health records,”  said NDTV,  “22 people died of rabies,  while 242,000 dog bite cases were reported,”  during the first half of 2024,  up sharply from 18 human deaths from rabies in 2023,  when 443,000 dog bites were reported.

On August 16,  2024,  Kaouther Harabech,  coordinator of the national anti-rabies program in Tunisia,  grimly announced on Jawhara FM radio that confirmed human rabies deaths in Tunisia had risen from five in 2021 and five again in 2022,  to six in 2023,  and nine so far in 2024.

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