Trapping Lobbyist Misleads on Rabies “Facts”
(“New leghold traps help control raccoons carrying rabies,” Nov 23, by Edward
J. Markowski)
By Susan Russell
Edward Markowski of the New Jersey Outdoor
Alliance makes the foolish claim (November 23) that New Jersey’s 1984 ban on
leghold traps was responsible for the presence of rabies in the state from 1985
through 1989, and beyond.
Volumes of news and public health reports
show that the mid- Atlantic and northeastern outbreak, which began in
the late 1970s – Mr. Markowksi makes it appear a “New Jersey” outbreak –
pre-dated the law and had nothing whatsoever to do with it.
As described by the Centers for Disease
Control (1995):
In 1971, rabies was
reported for the first time from all 48 contiguous states and Alaska. Skunks
(primarily the striped skunk, Mephitis mephitis) formed the major animal
reservoir from 1961 to 1989, until they were unexpectedly supplanted by the
raccoon (Procyon lotor) during the rabies outbreak in the mid-Atlantic and
northeastern states (7). This epizootic is believed to have started during the
late 1970s by the translocation of infected animals from a southeastern focus
of the disease.
Researchers reported that the translocation was done by private hunting clubs—the very
interests the New Jersey Outdoor Alliance represents. The clubs imported
rabid raccoons from Florida
to the Virginia/West Virginia border for the purpose of hunting. The rabies
strain spread mostly north and east.
Further, as reported by the New
York Times in 1987:
The Middle Atlantic
States, which reported almost no rabid raccoons a decade ago, accounted for
better than two-thirds of rabies cases in raccoons last year. The states,
Maryland, Pennsylvania, Virginia and West Virginia, along with the District of
Columbia, reported 1,195 rabies cases in raccoons in 1986, up from 1,078 the
year before.”
In 2016 the Centers
says that “[E]fforts are primarily focused on delivering oral rabies
vaccine–laden baits targeted at raccoons along the East Coast of the United
States. Oral vaccination of wildlife (primarily foxes and raccoons) has greatly
reduced the spread of rabies in numerous countries in North America and
Europe.”
Fur trapping with leghold traps was legal in
all of the affected states and did nothing to halt the spread of rabies, which
eventually made its way to New Jersey.
In 2008, in the complete absence of leghold
trapping, which had been outlawed at that point for 23 years, the New Jersey
Department of Health wrote that raccoon rabies is “no longer
considered to be epizootic in New Jersey, as there is now some immunity in
the raccoon population and a lower number of yearly cases.”
According to the New
Jersey Department of Health, bats and cats pose the biggest threat of
transmitting rabies to humans. The rabies cycle would be “very hard to
eradicate unless the entire raccoon population were eliminated or heavily
vaccinated.” Rabies has caused “just two human deaths” in New Jersey since the
early 1960s, said the department in 2015. Early treatment is “100 percent
effective in preventing human rabies cases.”
It advises residents to stay away from any
animal acting aggressively or out of character, and to call local animal
control officer to the scene to assess the situation and capture the animal if
necessary. Vaccinating dogs and cats is imperative.
The “new” trap – which is a modified leghold
trap prohibited by the Legislature in 1984, isn’t “controlling” anything. The
modified traps have been around for years; the game council waited through
several administrations until hunter-friendly Chris Christie “rubberstamped”
the regulation.
Rabies fearmongering is a retread of fur
industry lobbying tactics in 1984, when the Centers for Disease Control, the
National Academy of Sciences* and others decisively quashed the trade’s
inaccurate claims; there was no evidence that trapping reduced rabies
reservoirs or rabies incidence.
Trappers trap for recreation or fur.
Apologists should stop manufacturing excuses. The nature and cause of the
mid-Atlantic and northeastern outbreak are common knowledge in the wildlife
field; the Alliance’s statements are irresponsible and should stand publicly
corrected.
****
* The National Academy of Sciences
subcommittee on rabies concluded that, "Persistent trapping or poisoning
campaigns as a means to rabies control should be abolished. There is no evidence
that these… programs reduce either wildlife reservoirs or rabies incidence. The
money can be better spent on research, vaccination, compensation to stockmen
for losses, education and warning systems.” National Research Council,
Subcommittee on Rabies. Control of Rabies. Washington: National Academy of
Sciences, 1973.
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