| Clinica Veterinaria: Social Networking & Rabies

This time we want to write about two different matters. One of them affects mainly animals, and the other one affects both animals and people.

The first one is about using animal suffering in social networking. We all have watched funny cats videos at Youtube (and we all have laughed a lot, of course). We mean cats that play, chase each other, drink from the tap, hide in boxes for stalking other cats, etc. All this things are hilarious and harmless. So far, so good. But the problem comes when Youtube algorithm drives us to other pets videos, where you can see “poor” animals which have been “rescued” in “very poor condition”. Very often they are “found” in the middle of the street extremely skinny, scruffy and scared. In this cases the implied animal is normally a dog. The video usually continues showing the first bath, the first meal, etc. Surprisingly, these “scared and abandoned” animals react in a strange submissive and peaceful way when having a shampoo and facing the hair dryer. They should panic with the noise and the air jet, shouldn’t they?? Anyone who knows how these things work, knows perfectly that abandoned and mistreated animals are normally afraid of everything and won’t react so well when groomed in 99% of cases.

Every time we watch one of those “poor fleabag dog rescued” or “poor ill mommy cat and kittens rescued” videos, we may be supporting, without even realizing, some really disgusting people creating these sad situations on purpose, just for the likes. Why do we think so? Because they are very well structured videos, with close-ups, wide shots, same as a real movie. If one of us finds an animal like that, normally we do what we have to do instead of feeling like Steven Spielberg just for one day. Even if we take a video with our mobile, it will be a blurred amateur footage, similar to when we film our dog when it suddenly starts doing something funny, but never a 7 th art masterpiece. And yes, we firmly believe there are people nasty enough to create those farces just for obtaining some likes at Instagram or Tik Tok, not caring at all of animal suffering. Yes, we believe we are talking of mistreated on purpose animals, just for showing at the Internet the “miraculous” recovering. Let’s don’t forget if we open the video, even for disliking it, that means one more view, which is exactly what they want.

Of course, we don’t include in this category those videos where you see Police, Firemen or Seprona rescuing an animal in troubles, for example in case of natural disaster. There is a big difference which there is no need to be explained to the adults we all are supposed to be.

This month second matter is about rabies. One Spaniard died some weeks ago in Valencia because he caught rabies from an infected dog during his holidays in Ethiopia, and a few days later a Brit died at the UK after being bitten by a dog in Morocco. We will never stop repeating rabies is lethal. If first symptoms appear (sometimes even one year after the bite, as happened to the Spaniard) and no after exposure therapy (which consists of 4 dosages of vaccine plus several antibodies injections) has been started, the outcome is always the same: death. The only exception so far is an American girl from Bible Belt (and all that it implies) whose fanatic anti-vaccine parents refused post exposure therapy for her after being bitten by a bat at the church. After several months in coma, the girl woke up, but she remained quadriplegic. Is that what you call life?

For these reasons, we keep reminding everybody to keep rabies injections updated, and to be very careful when going on holidays to a country which is not free of rabies (much more ones that you may initially think). And, despite it’s completely legal to renew rabies injection every 2 or 3 years, manufacturers cannot guarantee a good immunity further than one year, so you’d better don’t be like those Bible Belt rednecks, and keep immunity high enough by renewing rabies injection every year. You cannot harm your animal in any way, and for the price of the injection you get, in addition, a check and a free worming tablet. We can’t imagine a better investment. Spain is a peninsula, not an island like Britain, and there is rabies at Morocco and France. The only reason why we keep being a rabies free country is vaccination, vaccination and vaccination.