Alabama has recently become the only state in the country to adhere to an outdated annual rabies vaccination requirement for dogs and cats.
The Rabies Challenge Fund is attempting to change that by introducing legislation that would make Alabama conform to the three-year protocol recommended by the National Association of State Public Health Veterinarians Rabies Compendium, including a medical exemption clause for sick animals.
The current Title 3 Chapter 7A-2 of the Alabama Code mandating annual rabies vaccinations is counter to the recommendations of the American Veterinary Medical Association and the Center for Disease Control’s National Asociation of State Public Health Veterinarian’s Compendium of Animal Rabies Prevention and Control 2008.
“Redundant animal rabies shots needlessly expose dogs and cats to the risk of adverse effects while obligating residents to pay unnecessary veterinary medical fees,” Kris L. Christine, founder and co-trustee of the Rabies Challenge Fund, wrote in a letter.
The rabies vaccine is the most immunologically potent of the veterinary vaccines and is associated with significant adverse reactions such as polyneuropathy, autoimmune hemolytic anemia, autoimmune diseases, anaphylactic shock, aggression, seizures, epilepsy and fibrosarcomas at injection sites.
The Rabies Challenge Fund is also requesting that an exemption clause be built into the legislation that would allow veterinarians to write medical exemptions for animals with conditions that preclude vaccination.
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