There are two community efforts that are trending in opposite directions. First, Operation Medicine Drop — turning in prescription medicines — has seen the following:
April 8, 2011, 8,984 pills surrendered; Oct. 29, 2011, 19,737 pills surrendered; March 24, 2012, 26,702 pills surrendered; Sept. 29, 2012, 29,153 pills surrendered; March 23, 2013, 22,952 pills surrendered; Oct. 26, 2013, 19,832 pills surrendered; March 22, 2014, 35,329 pills surrendered; Sept. 27, 2014, 30,236 pills surrendered; and March 14, 2015, 58,068 pills surrendered.
That is more than 250,000 prescribed pills that have been removed from medicine cabinets and kept from people who were not originally intended to receive them. It should be noted that comparing the first to the last event there has been almost a 50,000 increase in pills turned in.
The effort that is heading in the wrong direction is the veterinarians’ rabies vaccination clinics held at all of the fire stations in Robeson County. Vaccination stations have seen a decline from 1,758 animals in 2013 to 910 in 2014 to less than 750 for 2015.
So how many pets are there in Robeson County? Based on the number of households and pets per household, there are approximately 30,287 dogs and 33,088 cats. So, out of more than 63,000 animals possible for the clinic, less than a thousand showed. This would be all right if the other 62,000 were vaccinated, but I would be surprised if a quarter of that number are current on their vaccinations. Frankly, if vaccinations and rabies being prevalent were not problems, the vets would not have made such an extraordinary effort to offer these services in every nook and cranny of Robeson.
My daughter works at the Health Department in Hertford County. Recently, they had a beaver bite a man and a dog, and a raccoon that got in a fight with a dog. Both wild animals tested positive for rabies. I asked her what happened to the dogs and she said they got boosters because they were current on their rabies vaccinations. I said here they would be euthanized because they seem never to be current for rabies vaccinations. Her response? That expression that sums it all up — “Well that’s Robco!”
But it doesn’t have to be — or does it?
