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| Truman Capote Shapiro (Front) and Denny Crane Shapiro (Back) ask for your Attention! |
Now stick with me here, this is important:
At the end of this really long post, if you really want to skip the facts, the figures, the interesting stuff about how the government even f*#ks this simple thing up, I have a call to action for you if you live in California, and one if you do not.
AB 272 was written by someone with a combination of inaccurate information and just plain wrong information. Even after the information was corrected three times, the California Assembly Committee that was assigned to study this bill could not find how the bills outcome met with the initial goal of the bills sponsor: The Health Officers Association of California.
Basically, the bill changes the required rabies vaccination age from 4 months to 3 months. Someone thought this was a great idea because the packaging said that 3 months was the very earliest one should consider giving the vaccine to a puppy or kitten.
Here is why it's a bad idea. Here is what is going on for a puppy between 3-4 months:
1. The full boat of other vaccinations are happening, these are very stressful on a pup, as I am sure you have seen.
2. Weening from Mom. I don't think I need to tell you about that.
3. Puppy still carries that last bit of the maternal antibodies that come from birth and nursing. That natural immune system that is mom's "birthday gift" to puppy.
4. Puppy is getting a new home, that involves getting used to new food, new family (kids yikes!), new germs, new EVERYTHING!
If you give that baby a rabies vaccination at 3 months along with all of the other vaccinations there is evidence that you have just blown the gasket on the Mommy super immune protection and negated that rabies vaccine altogether, thus leaving the puppy unprotected until new owner gets the first booster which could be... don't hold your breath. We all know that everyone goes into buying a dog with the best intentions but the follow-through on rabies vacine boosters are not great.
Let's' go to the label shall we?
"Merial’s IMRAB rabies vaccine labels indicate that they "can be administered to puppies as early as 3 months of age" and Pfizer’s Defensor rabies vaccine labels advise that they are for dogs and cats “3 months of age or older.” These instructions denote the minimum age at which it is safe to administer rabies vaccines (i.e., do not administer before 3 months of age) and not a minimum age at which they must be administered to be effective. Scientific data reflect that the later a puppy can be vaccinated, the more likely the vaccine will have the desired immunological response due to reduced interference of maternal antibodies, which are still present in 3 month old puppies."
And why do people wait or avoid that booster rabies shot?
Because we just don't see a lot of rabies in dogs in California. It's true that cats are more prone to rabies than dogs (sorry kitty owners, just a fact) but the author of the bill got all freakie deakie when he saw this hot spot of rabid bats and other rodents in California and he transposed the numbers when he saw other state statistics of how old dogs are when they get their vaccines (he saw all but 12 do and got confused about the statistic of the 12 state bodies that recommend immunizations and at what age) and totally went... well... rabid on the whole dealio.
Well guess what? I'll tell you.
"The past two years we have seen a 4 -5 fold increase in bat rabies in LA County, with some areas being hot spots.” There has been no escalation in canine rabies corresponding to the increase in bat rabies, which according to the Department of Health’s Reported Animal Rabies, for Los Angeles County there were no cases of rabid dogs from 2010 through 2012, while there were 114 rabid bats (22 in 2010, 38 in 2011, and 54 in 2011—representing an increase of nearly 2.5 times instead of a 4-5 fold increase). Statewide, there have only been three cases of rabies in dogs since 2007, as opposed to 981 rabid bats and 147 rabid skunks for the same period, which evidences the fact that the current law requiring puppies to be vaccinated against rabies by 4 months of age is effective at controlling rabies in California’s canine community and does not need to be changed.
To address the concern over a rising increase in rabies in the bat population spilling over into the domestic pet population, Dr. Ehnert and other members of the Health Officers Association of California should request introduction of a bill requiring that all cats in California be vaccinated against rabies, as cats are reported to be 4 times as likely to be infected with rabies as dogs.The Chair of the Compendium of Animal Rabies Prevention and Control Committee, Dr. Catherine M. Brown, stated that “[b]ecause more rabies cases are reported annually involving cats…than dogs, vaccination of cats should be required.”
As my dogs like to say: Blame the cats blame the cats.
But seriously, something that was meant to protect cats spilled over into the dog world, unnecessarily.
Call to action!
California Residents: Write to your State Senator and Assembly Member. AB272 has cleared committee. It has to go to Assembly and if it passes there it will go to the Senate. At minimum write to your Assembly Member. Don't know who your representative in Sacramento is? Check here: http://bit.ly/154U8uANon-Resident: Donate to the Rabies Challenge Fund http://www.rabieschallengefund.org/ Not only are they fighting for this, but fighting to change the booster time period from 5-7 years. This keeps our pets safe from over immunization. Read the site, if you like what they have to say, throw a couple of bucks their way.
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