Working Together For A Rabies Free Bali

MEDIA RELEASE

28 September 2010

Working Together For A Rabies Free Bali

Island-Wide Vaccination Programme Launched On World Rabies Day

The World Society for the Protection of Animals (WSPA), in partnership with international and Indonesian agencies, celebrates World Rabies Day with the launch of a mass vaccination campaign designed to eradicate rabies from Bali by 2012. The programme also sets an example for other nations still afflicted by rabies.

Last week, the Bali government signed an agreement ordering an immediate end to the culling of dogs, and authorising WSPA member society, the Bali Animal Welfare Association (BAWA) to inoculate nearly 400,000 dogs as an essential first step towards controlling the spread of the disease.

"Rabies remains a threat to both human and animal populations and still kills 55,000 people annually" said WSPA New Zealand’s Country Manager, Bridget Vercoe. (Footnote 2).

"Bali’s multi- stakeholder approach will again prove that the only effective solution to the rabies problem combines compassion with scientific knowledge. We congratulate the Balinese government for this agreement, and are proud that this mass vaccination campaign will not only save the lives of tens of thousands of dogs in Bali, but also create a historic reference in the global fight against rabies."

"The Bali administration, faced with the enormous challenge of rabies on our island, did what they then believed was necessary to protect the people, ordering the killing of all free roaming dogs. We advocated against this approach not only because it was inhumane but also because it has globally been proven to be ineffective," said Janice Girardi, Founder of BAWA, "With our pilot project, vaccinating dogs in the regencies of Gianyar and Bangli, we offered proof that a humane alternative was practical and effective. Today, with the Bali administration working with us, we stand poised to replicate this success all across the island and restore Bali to its rabies free status in the near future."

Following BAWA’s successful pilot vaccination scheme this year in two of Bali’s regencies, its agreement with the island’s government will enable teams of trained animal handlers to inoculate dogs in the remaining seven regencies. (Footnote 3). The World Health Organization (WHO) describes such vaccinations as “Globally, the most cost-effective strategy for preventing rabies in people.” (Footnote 2)

1. WSPA is the world’s largest alliance of animal welfare societies, with approximately 1,000 member societies in over than 150 countries. We are the only animal welfare organization with consultatative status at the UN.

2. According to the World Health Organization. Please see WHO’s factsheet on rabies: http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs099/en/ (just changed the order)

3. Bali is divided into nine regencies: Buleleng, Jembrana, Tabanan, Badung, Bangli, Karangasem, Denpasar, Klungkung and Gianyar. As part of a WSPA funded pilot project teams from BAWA have already completed vaccinating over 70 per cent of the dogs in Gianyar and Bangli regencies.

5. As WSPA pointed out while submitting its proposal for island-wide vaccination, animal vaccination has been shown to be the most effective way to control rabies. In Mexico, for example, 16 million dogs are vaccinated every year, and the disease is close to eradication. In Flores, Indonesia, one third of the dog population was culled between 1998 and 2001, yet rabies there remains a serious problem.

ENDS

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