Rabies

In North America it is remarkably easy to forget that rabies kills over 50,000 people every year. While visiting one of the farms from last year’s study, we were reminded of this truth. When we arrived on the farm we learnt that the calf from last year had died after having being bit by a dog. It did not take us long to start to think about rabies. After talking with the farmer we learnt that one of his dogs had not only bit the calf but also his goat, the farmer and two members of his family. Both the calf and the goat died but thankfully the farmer and his family were treated quickly and did not develop the disease.

The farmer was in fact lucky since he was able to afford to have his family treated each with 5 injections. The medical system here is not like in Canada where the government would pay for the medication, here the farmer had to pay out of pocket for the treatment. He was also lucky that his dog did not hurt any other animals or people before being killed as he would have had to cover the cost of treatment and damages had that not been the case.

It reminded me just why the people here get a scared look on their faces when we want to approach the dogs on the farms. To most people here, dogs are dangerous and you should never approach one. Rabies is a reality here as animals are not commonly vaccinated. For us back home, a case of rabies in a calf and a goat would be fairly rare but here it is a part of life. It is not like in North America where many dogs live in the home and share our lives. Here, most dogs are outside and are either confined to a small pen or tied. Their job is to guard. There are of course exceptions, some dogs are treated as pets and are very friendly but in large part, the dogs here are only good around their owners and so interacting with them can be dangerous.

Below are a couple pictures of a mother and her single pup. They don't look like the typical dogs in this area which are the size of the mother but most often are a yellow-beige color.