DES MOINES – An Iowa family is learning a hard lesson about the dangers of taking a wild animal into their home.

After finding an orphan baby skunk, the family brought it home to raise as a house pet. According to the Iowa Department of Public Health state medical director, Patricia Quinlik, the animal became sick and subsequently tested positive for rabies.

According to Quinlik, the entire family must now be treated for rabies with a series of shots. The family’s dog was not vaccinated for rabies. It will either have to be put down or quarantined for 6 months.

“And we just want to warn other people around the state of Iowa that you just don’t want to bring wild animals into your homes, because the can often carry rabies which is a very deadly disease and we have to give shots to try and prevent it if you’ve been exposed,” Quinlisk says.

Skunks are one of the highest risk animals for spreading rabies. In the United States, an average of one person per year dies from rabies.  Worldwide however, approximately 45,000 to 60,000 people die each year from rabies.  The reason for the relatively low number of deaths in the US is because of an aggressive vaccination program for dogs, cats and ferrets.  This statistic shows how important it is to vaccinate all pets, not just dogs, cats and ferrets, but all mammalian pets.

Tags: iowa, Iowa Department of Public Health, Patricia Quinlik, rabies, skunk

This entry was posted on July 24, 2010 at 6:00 am and is filed under Featured, Health. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.