Support Sen. Dixon’s rabies vaccination bill

My wife doesn’t follow Alabama politics to the extent that I do (not many do, though).  So I was pleasantly surprised when she asked me to research a particular piece of pending legislation she was interested in.  The legislation has two elements that she liked.

The first moves the rabies vaccination cycle for pets from one years to three years, which is what every other state in the union uses.  Even Arkansas beat us on that one.

The second is an exemption for vaccination if the animal’s health is threatened.  My wife has a cat (it is an evil, spiteful little thing and thus I don’t claim it!) that responds very poorly to rabies vaccinations.  The last time she was vaccinated was probably six years ago and she nearly perished.  So my wife is always fearful that she’ll have to take the cat to the vet for some type of procedure and the vet will be obligated to administer the potentially life threatening rabies shot.  The cat is a full time indoor cat, though, so the chances of getting rabies are quite slim.  The only other animals that make it inside the house (at least intentionally) are our two dogs, both of which are immunized regularly.

So, like any dutiful husband/blogger I went to ALISON and searched for the bill armed only with the knowledge that Sen. Larry Dixon was the sponsor.  The only possible match I could find was a bill with the following subject:

Rabies, vaccination programs further provided for, ferrets added to animals required to be vaccinated, exemption for certain animals authorized, liability at rabies clinics, type of vaccines, home quarantines authorized, penalties, Sec. 3-7A-16 added; Secs. 3-7A-1, 3-7A-2, 3-7A-3, 3-7A-5, 3-7A-7, 3-7A-8, 3-7A-9, 3-7A-10, 3-7A-11, 3-7A-12, 3-7A-14 am’d.

So I opened up the bill and started reading…

SYNOPSIS: Under existing law, dogs and cats are required to be immunized for rabies. This bill would add ferrets to the list of animals required to be vaccinated…

I called out, “Honey, this is a ferret bill.  Are you sure about this?”  But I read on and found the exemption clause.  The bill doesn’t explicitly require vaccinations every three years, but it removes the annual requirement.  That would allow vets to administer the vaccination according to the manufacturer’s suggested frequency, which as I understand it is every three years.

So since I am without representation in the Senate at this time I emailed my previous Senator (Arthur Orr) and asked him to track it and support it.  He’s always been an outstanding representative of his constituents and he gladly agreed to help me even though he no longer has any obligation to do so, although he did initially react the same way I did, (paraphrasing) “This looks like some kind of ferret bill.”

Well, “the ferret bill” unanimously passed a Senate committee on Thursday.  It could go before the full Senate as early as Tuesday.

I encourage you to contact your senator and ask him/her to support Sen. Dixon’s rabies bill (you can call it the ferret bill I guess).  The bill number is SB469 and you can read it for yourself here.  If you don’t know who your senator is you can find out here.  You can contact Sen. Larry Dixon at 334-242-7895 or larry.dixon@alsenate.gov.