Update: the dog’s rabies vaccination was current and he was given a booster shot as well. The test for the fox carcass will come back in about seven days. If it’s positive, the dog must be either euthanized or quarantined for six months.
Here’s hoping it’s a negative rabies test!
Doesn’t the rabies shot prevent the dog from getting rabies?
Also, why vaccinate at all if the dog must be euthanized anyway?
Lordy…what the world is coming to.
If the dog has had rabies vaccination and doesn’t have any obvious wounds, it’s fine. Sure, watch it if you want to but since you are the owner, that doesn’t seem difficult.
Toss the carcass in the forest preserve if you don’t want to bury it yourself. Animals pretty much die all the time and frequently kill one another.
Or turn the whole thing into a giant Episode requiring assorted Authorities, I guess…
This is supposed to be the forum for factual answers. Not for any old nonsense you thought you’d like to make up.
Wow…a doctor who denigrates public health directives and the need for same. I’m surprised. No irony involved at all here…I’m genuinely surprised.
Six months? Normally they hold an animal (that bit someone) for ten days, because rabies shows unmistakable signs within that period. Wouldn’t the traditional ten days be enough?
But I’ll admit that for all I know it might be that there’s a longer period before the disease manifests itself in biting behavior. Still, one could be bitten for reasons unrelated to (manifested) rabies and those animals seem to be quarantined for only ten days, if I am making any sense. Does this reflect a real change in medical understanding, or just official butt-covering? Or is the dog in a jurisdiction that’s more careful about rabies than the ones I’ve been in?
Edit: when I received rabies shots last summer for a cat bite, the docs stopped the shots (with the consent of the county rabies coordinator) because the cat in question was still alive two weeks later and “that means he cannot have had rabies, because the disease progresses to fatality faster than that.” What’s different in this story?
This whole scenario has been bothering me. I religiously get my dogs’ rabies shots to protect them, but if they wouyld have to be euthanized anyway, why bother?
I actually called my vet today to ask about this. He said that the law will vary state to state, but yes, if the fox is positive the dog could be euthanizaed.
Still curious, I then called our local animal control. She said that thet go under the assumption that the vaccine isn’t 100% effective, and by Indiana state law, the dog would have to be euthanized, or if the owner chooses, quarentined at animal control for 6 months- 6 months without any contact of any kind. If I was faced with that choice, I think I would opt for the euthanasia- being in total isolation for 6 months would be inhumane beyond belief for a dog, and they would likely come out of it with mental damage.
This is a very disturbing thread for me. 
PapSett, I find it highly disturbing as well. The more reading I’ve been doing, the more I’ve learned that the rabies laws are in place to protect the people they live with. Apparently, according to the law, dogs are essentially disposable. We give 'em rabies shots and then, if they get rabies, we’ll just put 'em down anyway. Why bother giving the vaccinations in the first place? So you and your kids don’t get the rabies.
Sad, sad, sad.
That’s odd. Did your friend perhaps misunderstand? In NC it’s either/or for the booster/quarantine.
http://www.animallaw.info/statutes/stusncst19A_20_130A_201.htm#s130A_197
Nah, don’t worry about it. I just like foxes, and I;'m a little emotionally attached to them. This may sound odd, but it’s because I’ve jsut never seen one in the wild. I’ve seen bears, hunted deer, caught all kinds of fish. I’ve spotted beavers and rabbits and otters and elk and coyotes. But I’ve never seen foxes, and to me they’re kind of magic. Plus, they combine many of the better traits of canines and cats. I hope one day to adopt a domesticated silver fox, and maybe even breed them as semi-exotic pets.
I’ve spotted some around these parts (Panhandle of Florida) and I’m with you: super nifty critters. Generally, they avoid people, so you might not have seen one, but I’d bet one has seen you!
A little hint: Deer hunters sometimes use fox urine to mask their own human scent. They scatter a little near them, and the powerful rank smell covers up the faint smells of man, Right Guard, and Old Spice. Some rookie hunters have applied the stuff to themselves, to their everlasting regret. :eek:
If you plan to domesticate a fox, you might want to buy a bottle of fox pee at a sporting goods store, to get an idea what you’re in for.
The thing is, a law that if an animal exposed to rabies it must be euthanized is counterproductive. All it means is that if someone’s pet gets exposed to a suspicious animal, the owners won’t take it in for testing, because it means a death sentence for their pet. And so next time they’ll just dispose of the carcass in the woods, and pretend it never happened. And if the fox turned out to be rabid, we get a Cujo type situation.
What am I missing? I said just that: it’s either euthanized or quarantined for six months:
It’s certainly tragic, and I would have shed tears if I had to put a family pet to sleep under those circumstances.
But I’d make that choice in a heartbeat, because I have a young son, and his life is infinitely more valuable than a pet’s is.
Add me to the fox appreciators. Probably my favorite wild animal, and I can clearly remember 3 times I saw them in the wild.
More recently I got to see one regularly. Right behind us a crappy builder was building a house. The sale fell through, he didn’t pay his contractors, it got foreclosed, etc. - now 5 years later is still isn’t completed. But maybe 2 years into the process they had installed the unfinished wood floors, but had not closed up the house. One day we walked thru the house just to see what progress had been made, and couldn’t believe the stench. Looking around we saw piles of scat and puddles of urine everywhere. A fox had taken up residence. NO WAY they are gonna get that smell out! And they only want $1.6 million for the wreck! 
Anyway, we used to see that fox all the time. He used to enjoy sunning on the concrete driveway. Scratched incessantly - made me think it had to be infested with fleas. Took a little of the romance off, I tell you.
I’ve just done some research and am relieved to learn that the quarantine in Florida is only ten days. That would be traumatic for my very spoiled (and most certainly overly attached) Boston terriers, but they would basically be okay. One dog is 14 and might not survive the stress of being kenneled in quarantine for ten days.
If a beloved family pet (who has been vaccinated) actually shows signs of rabies infection, I don’t think there’s much the docs can do and it’s probably in the pet’s best interests to be put down. If they don’t show signs of infection, then you get to bring 'em home and all is well again.
I dunno about this six month quarantine or we might just whack 'em anyway policy. Remind me not to live in that state with pets.
And as has been quoted above, it’s not necessarily six months; it’s up to six months.