Are Your Pets Legal--Licensed and Vaccinated?

Fairfax County has the distinction of reporting the largest number of rabies cases in animals than any other county in the Commonwealth. In populated, wooded areas such as Fairfax Station and Clifton, people and their pets interact more frequently with wildlife. Rabies, as a result, is relatively common. Many of the animals we see in our yards and our woods -- raccoons, foxes, skunks, bats and deer -- carry the virus, which is deadly to us, our dogs, cats, ferrets, and even our horses.

Because we spend more time outside in the spring, exposure to rabid animals is more likely. For this reason, the Fairfax County Animal Control undertakes its springtime neighborhood Rabies and License Canvass. The purpose of this program, which began on March 26 and will continue through May 28, is education.

Animal Control Officer Sgt. Pitts explained that the canvasses will take place in communities where rabid animals were found the previous year. In my neighborhood, for example, a Weimariner tussled with a raccoon last fall. The raccoon tested positive for rabies, and the dog was quarantined in his house for several weeks. That incident will probably trigger visits, unlike the horse that fell into the swimming pool next door or the wayward gelding that wandered into a neighbor’s corral last fall (“Horse on the Lam”).

Teams of Animal Control officers, who are sworn members of the Fairfax County Police Department, knock on doors during a canvass. They discuss with residents the importance of rabies vaccinations, Sgt. Pitts continued, and check to see if shot records are up-to-date. All dogs older than four months must be licensed, for a nominal fee of $10. Residents are then given a brochure titled “Wildlife, Your Pets and the Law.”

Because rabies is an incurable disease, once contracted, the county is serious about enforcing the inoculation and licensing laws. A violation, which is a Class IV misdemeanor, can lead to fines of  $250. To learn more about laws affecting your dog, visit the highly informative Animal Control Services Web site: http://www.fairfaxcounty.gov/police/animal/animal-control-services.htm

Can I vouch for the gravity with which these laws are regarded? Indeed, I can. About 20 years ago, our three dogs killed a raccoon in our barnyard. Not quite sure what to do with the critter, I buried him in a manure pile. Then like a responsible citizen, I telephoned Animal Control, and with the speed of lightning, the Animal Control officer arrived. She wasn’t smiling as she told me to dig up the ravaged raccoon. Nor was she smiling when she checked our Airedale’s rabies certificate, which had expired the previous week. (The other dogs, thank goodness, were still legal.) Toby was about to be thrown in jail -- quarantined for months, I thought -- at the Animal Shelter because of my negligence. However, my daughter and I both cried, the dog was paroled, and I have never let our rabies shots expire!