World Animal Protection has marked a major milestone in giving one million rabies vaccinations to dogs around the world to protect their lives and safeguard communities.
The global charity has joined forces with high-profile names such as Ronnie Wood, Leona Lewis, Jodi Picoult and Natalie Imbruglia to celebrate the milestone and campaign to vaccinate the next million.
Ronnie said: “Our dog Dolly is a wonder dog beagle extraordinaire! She’s very loving. All dogs should be treated responsibly, with understanding and compassion, which is why I support World Animal Protection’s campaign to create a better life for dogs around the world.”
World Animal Protection said: “Each and every dog around the world deserves love and protection but many face abuse, disease, starvation and death because they are homeless. Many are abandoned by owners who no longer care or pay for them. We are leading the way to end the unnecessary deaths of millions of dogs, every year, caused by the fear of rabies or dog bites.
This forgotten disease is killing five times as many people as Ebola, and a disease we are taking for granted.
Every day, thousands of dogs are violently killed because of rabies. Dragged through streets, electrocuted, poisoned or gassed – culling is a painful death. We are grateful to Leona, Jodi and Natalie for helping us shine a light on how dog lovers in any country can work together to protect dogs in another.“
There are 700 million dogs in the world today. Many of them are unwanted, unhealthy and unvaccinated. Fear of bites and rabies means that millions are killed every year.
It is a tragic reality that thousands of people around the world continue to die from rabies each year, even though it’s almost 100% preventable. Innocent dogs also suffer as a result.
World Animal Protection is working around the globe to end the cruel culling of dogs in the name of rabies. They’ve worked with governments in Asia and Africa to implement vaccination schemes since 2011 and show that this approach works. There are no human rabies cases reported in pilot sites in China since the charity worked there in 2012 and in Zanzibar since 2013.
You can find out more about the Better Lives for Dogs campaign here
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