4-18-2023 8:18am

Clifton Spring Rabies Clinic: Reasons to Vaccinate Your Pets

The Rabies and Licensing Clinics: The Clifton Health Department will be holding the 2023 Annual Spring Rabies Clinics for cats and dogs. Vaccines are free, and all New Jersey residents are welcome (please bring a valid form of identification). The dates are Saturday, April 22, 2023 (2:00 pm to 4:00 pm) and Wednesday, April 26, 2023 (5:00 pm to 7:00 pm).

Both clinics will be held at the DPW Garage, located at 307 East 7th Street in Clifton, NJ 07013. 2023 Dog Licenses will be available for Clifton residents ONLY.

Clifton residents can get rabies vaccines for their pets, but not licenses, at the Little Falls Rabies Clinic on Wednesday, April 19th from 5:00 pm - 7:00 pm.

For more information, read the flyer or call the Clifton Health Department at 973-470-5760.

Why You Should Vaccinate Your Pet: Rabies is one of the oldest known infectious diseases and is nearly 100% fatal. It is well controlled in the US, thanks to our vaccination of cats, dogs, and some wildlife, but continues to cause 60,000 human deaths a year globally, with most of those deaths being in children.

Vaccination and other health measures have made rabies management a success story in the United States. The CDC reports that every year 40 million dogs and cats as well as 10 million wild animals are vaccinated against rabies. This has reduced the spread of the disease by 95% from its peak in 1947 to less than 3 human deaths a year today. This is estimated to save $1 billion dollars a year in associated healthcare costs, mostly from not needing to administer rabies post-exposure prophylaxis (rabies PEP).

While rabies is well controlled in the United States, over 4 million Americans report being bitten by animals each year, 800,000 of whom will receive medical attention and consultations from local or state health departments, who have to weigh the cost and availability of rabies vaccines against the fact that rabies nearly always leads to death if people don’t receive the vaccine prior to the start of rabies symptoms. Decisions to start post-exposure prophylaxis (PEP) will be based on your type of exposure, the animal you were exposed to, whether the animal is available for testing, and laboratory and surveillance information for the geographic area where the exposure occurred. Post-exposure prophylaxis (PEP) consists of a dose of human rabies immune globulin (HRIG) and rabies vaccine given on the day of the rabies exposure, and then a dose of vaccine given again on days 3, 7, and 14. Every year around 60,000 PEPs are given.

If a dog, cat, or other animal bites a human, under New Jersey law, the animal must be confined for 10 days after the animal has attacked or bitten a person, to determine whether the animal shows symptoms of rabies. This applies whether the animal has been vaccinated or not.

Vaccinating pets is an important step in keeping rabies in check, as dogs and cats can get it from wildlife and then spread it to humans. Rabies is one of the world’s deadliest diseases but also one that we have successfully managed to keep in check in the United States, thanks to vaccinations.