Ms. Dozier and other PETA members have been targeting The Rabies Challenge Fund for about a week. Attacking The Rabies Challenge Fund, which seeks to save thousands of dogs' lives by funding the research with the goal of extending state-mandated rabies vaccine boosters to 5 and then 7 years will not change USDA vaccine licensing standards (which all 13 licensed rabies vaccines for dogs have gone through -- Fort Dodge, Merial, Schering-Plough, Intervet).
If PETA were truly concerned about dogs' lives, they would channel their concerns constructively and launch a massive petition to the USDA to get them to change their vaccine-licensing standards. Every member of The Rabies Challenge Fund team would applaud such a movement.
Dog owners who would like to see PETA petition the USDA to change their Code of Federal Requirements , Title 9, part 113.209 , please contact PETA's policy advisor, Samantha Dozier at samanthapeta@hotmail.com 757-622-7382 and let her know how you feel.
Below is a copy of Dr. Dodds' response to two other PETA members who have contacted her with concerns.
Unfortunately, this information from PETA is terribly misleading. See below. We've tried to have a dialog with PETA about their RCF concerns and so hope that they now understand what we're doing and why. We appreciate your concern about the way in which we must conduct the RCF Research Study. Please allow me to explain the regulatory requirements we must follow as specified by the Code of Federal Requirements, USDA , Title 9, part 113.209. We cannot get a new rabies vaccine licensed by the government with the extended booster periods of 5 and eventually 7 years unless we strictly follow these regulatory requirements. The protocol is not up to us .
The Rabies Challenge Fund is designed to prove to UDSA authorities that dogs only need two booster rabies vaccines in their lifetime. This would significantly reduce the tragedies outlined below, save countless animal pain and suffering, and still protect the public health.
The public has little understanding of how all vaccines must be tested through USDA -specified trials before they are licensed for veterinary use. Every currently licensed rabies vaccine has been required to successfully complete these specified trials; and these vaccines as you know are required by law.
Only purebred beagles raised in a dog breeding facility run by veterinarians are involved in our project. This a large USDA licensed facility maintained in strict compliance with animal care and use requirements. The dogs live in large pens and are housed together in small groups for socialization and exercise. Further socialization is provided by their caretakers.
Today, we have a formidable uphill battle compounded by inertia in trying to change outdated rabies regulations to reflect what is truly needed to protect animals and people from contracting rabies. The federal government is just not interested in promoting a uniform requirement throughout the country that rabies booster vaccinations be given every three years. A few individual states and locales still insist on mandating annual rabies boosters when these vaccines are licensed for three years by the USDA. The recent media furor over the annual rabies booster mandate by the city of Wichita, KS is but one example.
While this travesty continues under the rubrick of state's rights, countless companion animals suffer from being required to receive rabies boosters even when they're terminally ill, debilitated, very old or have a record of prior serious adverse reaction to vaccination. This usually occurs when veterinarians either don't believe that adverse events occur or are likely, or they use the excuse that they're merely following the law. This situation is further complicated when local or state authorities will not accept waivers of booster requirement even with a veterinary letter of justification and/or a rabies antibody titer beyond the 1:5 titer level deemed by CDC to be adequate for people. Just today, a distraught caregiver was faced with having to revaccinate a middle aged dog with prior history of collapse after rabies vaccine. The dog's rabies antibody titer was 1: 3125, six hundred times that required for people, and yet the local authorities refused to grant a waiver.
These all too common occurrences have resulted in an increasing number of people simply breaking the law and not vaccinating their dogs at all. However, IF these dogs injure someone, even accidentally, and they're quarantined without evidence of an in-date rabies vaccination, the public health authorities have the right to require surety and direct that the animal be killed; his/her head is then examined for rabies. One such tragedy where a family was not given the chance to appeal on behalf of their dog is in litigation as we speak.
Then, there are the heartbreaking adverse reactions and deaths that occur when animals are forced to be given rabies boosters in lieu of waivers, when justified, and the dog seizures uncontrollably and dies in the caregiver's arms. Such a case also happened this past week.
Best wishes. With reverence for all life. Jean
More information on this subject from Dr. Dodds below responding to another PETA Member's inquiry. None of the research dogs will be allowed to develop full-blown rabies (see below) and the vaccinates will survive.
1. Question: How many dogs actually suffer, per year, to make purposely killing 70 pure bread beagles acceptable?
Dr. Dodds' Reply: It has been estimated that the adverse reaction rate of aerious nature to rabies vaccinations is in the order of 0.38- 0. 50 % , with another 1-3% of vacinates experiencing less severe reactions. of the millions of dogs thatr must be vacinated by law annually.
2. Question: How long does the dog suffer with obvious rabies before he is humanely euthanized?
Dr. Dodds' Reply: Not at all ; as soon as any relevant sign is noted with round-the-clock coiverage --- at the end of the 5 and 7 year trials -- when all the dogs must be challenged with rabies virus, they are humanely sacrificed. We expect that all the non-vaccinated dogs will become ill, and that vaccinates will survive. BUT, as all these dogs will be just housed in large family style group pens, cared for and socialized for the entire trial period, without any exposure challenge to rabies virus until the end of the study, we have at least 4 years of their routine husbandry and care in which to dialog with the respoonsible USDA authorities to ask them to consider an alternative endpoint to the trial -- for example, allowing us to run rabies vaccine serolgy titers as proff of adequartete protection from rabies rather than an actual live rabies virus challenge. Dr. Schultz and I are both personally committed to work towards changing the current requirements before the end of the trials.
3. Question: What makes you believe that if an owner does not vaccinate their dog every three years because of the reaction the dog may have to the vaccination, that that same owner WILL get the dog vaccinated every five years?
Dr. Dodds' Reply: We don't, but, if the law is changed , then a dog will only need one more booster in midlife and none in old age - a biger isue if they're frail or ill. Also, remember that some states and locales within states still madate annual rabies boosters ! In Wichita, KS and Cheyenne, WY a huge recent blitz of officials challenging their ignorant position of annual rabies vaccination resulted in the city ordinances being changed for the future. Much of this effort was spearheaded by Kris Christine and the RCF. .
Question: As we all know, there’s a fine line between scientific experiments that are worthwhile for the benefits of those in the future and there are those experiments that are more harmful than what will benefit anyone in the long run! I am a firm believer that the end must justify the means and I, at this point, am not convinced that the ends of this experiment justifies the means, mainly due to the fact that I’m unsure as to how many animals, per year, truly suffer from five vaccinations in their lifetimes, rather than just three !
Dr. Dodds' Answer: Rabies vaccine is the strongest of all vaccines available today, and so elicits the highest likelihood of adverse events , including death. I deal with these tragedies almost every day from all over North America -- as does Dr. Schultz.
Actually, this is what does and will happen -- once a rabies vaccine is licensed for 5 years, a puppy would receive 2 initial doses, and then one more dose 5 years after the second one. IF we can show that a rabies vaccine can be effective and licensed for 7 years, then the dog will require one more vaccine 7 years after the second one. As it now stands, dogs are required to get a rabies booster either annually or every three years after the second one -- depending on the applicable state or local laws, and so when these privately cared for dogs become older and ill or frail - even with life-threatening diseases, most states and locales refuse to grant exemptions from rabies boosters even with justification provided by the primary care veterinarian and/or a high level of rabies antibody titer.
Canine Rabies Vaccine Studies Begin!! 
Linear Mode
