Log Cabin Chronicles Charlie Bury rabies.html

Log Cabin Chronicles

WE DON'T DO SICK FOXES
Your public health & safety dollars at work

charlie

CHARLES BURY

When it comes to government agencies, it's amazing how some things fall through the cracks. Organizations sometimes scramble to avoid taking their responsibilities.

For example, if you see an animal that you think may have rabies, don't bother picking up the telephone -- no one will want to do anything about it unless the suspect animal either tried to bite somebody or is already dead.

Last week a sick-looking fox was spotted in the parking lot behind the Record offices on Queen Street in Lennoxville, Quebec. The same animal had apparently been seen a few days before at the golf club on the Bishop's campus across town.

The pathetic little animal hung around for more than thirty minutes. It seemed lost and showed little fear of humans. These are symptoms of rabies as well as certain other animal diseases, so we decided to be good corporate citizens and report the fox to the proper authorities. That led to a lengthy game of musical telephones, involving dozens of phone calls, six agencies and all three levels of government.

We reported our sick animal to all of them, but none would do a thing.

At the Wildlife branch of the Quebec Environment Ministry (MEF), the answer was "if it has anything to do with rabies, don't call us. Rabies is the exclusive responsibility of Agriculture Canada." That was fine, except that Agriculture Canada doesn't do that any more. The federal government has created a separate corporation for veterinary affairs, and has transferred the control of rabies to that group, the Canadian Food Inspection Agency.

At the CFIA Sherbrooke office, Dr. Françoise Gagnon's answer was "we aren't equipped to trap or catch or do anything with wild animals." If it were a domestic or farm animal CFIA would intervene, she said. And if it were dead, they would gladly receive the carcass for testing. But a live wild animal? No, not us. She gave us a number to call in Montreal.

Back at the Wildlife branch, district chief game warden Réal Carbonneau's next suggestion was to try the Society for the Protection of animals (SPA).

No, no, no, was the SPA reply. "It's MEF, not us," said Isabelle Bolduc. "They always do this." The SPA looks after pets, not wild creatures. They will rent you a trap if you want to solve the problem yourself, but if rabies is suspected, this is not a smart thing to do.

Back at the Wildlife branch, this time chief Carbonneau came up with written proof: "Agriculture Canada takes care of tracking the disease and the control of suspect animals." Not the MEF.

Our next call was to CFIA Montreal, but the doctor was out and no one else wanted to be in.

Then just for a change we tried Sherbrooke Regional Police. "No no, it's not our job," said the police dispatcher, who then referred the call to his supervisor. "We won't go if the animal is just wandering around," said Sgt. Marc Bérubé. "If the animal is clearly a threat, if people feel they are in danger, we will definitely go." But not if the animal just might be a danger. "It is a dilemma indeed," he said, but a sick animal is not a matter for the police.

The next call went to the town of Lennoxville. Instead of having its own animal-control officer, and like many towns around Sherbrooke, Lennoxville contracts out for this service to -_ you guessed it -_ the SPA. But town secretary Joanne Henson was concerned, and kind enough, to make a few more calls on our poor fox's behalf. But she called us back later to say that she could only, regretfully, confirm what we had found -- that no one was willing to take responsibility.

The following day the doctor was in. CFIA's role is very clear, he said. "We will get involved only if there is contact between the suspect animal and a domestic animal or person," said veterinarian Dr. Gilles Rivard. "If there is no bite or exposure, we don't get involved."

There are some good examples of your tax dollars at work: everybody's busy but no one wants to do anything -- at least in this case. Fortunately, as it turns out our little fox is almost certainly not carrying rabies. Being scrawny, stunned, and losing its hair are also symptoms of another disease.

Shown the Record's photos, game warden Laurent Cloutier immediately recognized it as a case not of rabies but of sarcoptic mange. Unlike rabies, he said, "We see quite a bit of that." Cloutier said the fox looked like it was on death's door and probably wouldn't make it through the week. That was a great relief.

While rabies can kill humans, sarcoptic mange generally only makes us bald and impotent.

In a future column well take a look at rabies, which causes an average of 15,000 deaths a year in India. We'll also find out why it's on its way out -- at least in the developing countries.

Charlie Bury is a freelance writer based in Birchton, Quebec.

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