On a number of the doggy blogs I read I have been following the controversy over shelter dogs and intrusive inspections by shelter personnel. etc. (You have certainly heard of the flak over Ellen DeGerneris' dog). This story offered an aspect that startled me. We are importing dogs to adopt out from our shelters from other countries. They are serving as vectors for foreign diseases. What!?! I thought our shelters were overrun. Why do we need dogs from other countries?
The story raised the issue of the canine version of rabies, which was recently eliminated here (dogs still get other kinds of rabies, such as bat rabies). I might add, what about foot and mouth disease? Dogs can't get it but animals other than hoofed creatures, including people, can carry it. One incident would devastate the American farm economy and the fall out from that would hit everybody in the nation. Lots of critters would die too. You would be staggered by how many animals would have to be killed if that disease were accidentally (or intentionally) imported here. A little common sense would be appreciated by me at least.
"It's a ticking time bomb," said Patti Strand, president of the National Animal Interest Alliance, a group that represents breeders, pet shop owners and others interested in animal welfare. "We've spent fortunes and decades eradicating many of these diseases, and they may be reintroduced."
A ticking moab if you ask me.
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Our local shelter is one of the ones that's always first to jump on the bandwagon to take dogs that have become lost due to natural disaster. I never thought about the disease aspect, but the first time I heard about them doing it the dogs came from a Spanish speaking country and I wondered how you'd deal with a dog trained to Spanish commands.
I feel for the animals. I really do, but I think we have enough to worry about caring for the homeless ones right here.
I never knew there were other kinds of rabies! I figured rabies was rabies.
Hi Stacy, I simply can't imagine importing stray dogs. I love dogs and we have one shelter dog right now, but to take them in when our shelters are already overloaded and mandatory spay/neuter programs are being proposed is just nuts.
WR, Yeah, I didn't really get it either until they announced a couple months ago that dog rabies had been eradicated in the USA. Too bad the same can't be said for bat rabies and other strains.
Kind of ties in with the 'Open the Border with Canada' debate. Another, we are worried about food and health safety, and yet we are bringing in these possibly and in some cases probably, infected animals that will just compound our problems. I think if we could listen in we would hear elevator music in a lot of these politicians heads.
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