Join Me and My Dog Campaign to Bring People and Pets #TogetherAgainstRabies
- Support Me and My Dog campaign by sending us your Selfie
- Campaign calls for dog lovers to come together to beatworld’s most fatal disease
- For more information on the Global Alliance for Rabies Control, click here
17 September 2014, Geneva, Switzerland – The Global Alliance for Rabies Control (GARC) today launches a new awareness-raising campaign, Me and My Dog, to bring attention to the world’s most fatal, and one of the most neglected, diseases.
Me and My Dog launches with the support of a number of celebrities including the internationally-acclaimed novelist Alexander McCall-Smith, the internationally-renowned entertainer Samantha Fox and the Academy Award nominated actor Peter McDonald. Members of the public are invited to support GARC’s call for dog vaccinations as the most effective and humane way of controlling the disease.
Despite being preventable, rabies kills around 70,000 people every year, many of whom die through a lack of access to lifesaving medical treatment. The number of dogs that die as a result of the disease, or as a result of culls aimed at controlling dog populations, is greater still.
Dog lovers are asked to support the campaign by sending in a selfie of themselves with their dog or dogs along with a message describing what their relationship means to them. All pictures will be uploaded and shared here in the run-up to World Rabies Day, September 28. These selfies will help raise awareness of the fact that rabies is a human and animal tragedy that can end if we work #TogetherAgainstRabies.
“Rabies is the world’s deadliest disease, with a human fatality rate of nearly 100%. But with the right kind of collaboration between human and animal health authorities, it could be brought under control. This is what GARC strives for and dog lovers can help us by sending in their selfie and showing the world that we are #TogetherAgainstRabies,” said Professor Louis Nel, Executive Director, GARC.
Notes to editors:
- Visit the Me And My Dog website here
- Support the campaign on Facebook here
- Follow us on Twitter using the hashtag #TogetherAgainstRabies
- For more information on GARC and the rabies control projects it is involved in around the world, click here.
To schedule an interview with a Global Alliance for Rabies Control expert, please contact: