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Why Doesn't Britain Have Rabies?
- Published_at:2014-12-29
- Category:Education
- Channel:Tom Scott
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- description: http://tomscott.com - http://twitter.com/tomscott - In 1993, the New York Times called rabies a "shared national nightmare" for Britain. For younger viewers, and those outside the UK -- say anyone who doesn't remember the Channel Tunnel opening -- "rabies" may just be one of those things you hear about on the news sometimes. But there are a lot of people who are proud of Britain being free of it. Here's why. I'm indebted to Pemberton and Worboys' wonderful "Mad Dogs and Englishmen: Rabies in Britain 1830-2000" - http://amzn.to/1xr1x2B - for a lot of fact-checking here, as well as inspiration. It turns out this is a properly fascinating subject: I had to cut so many fascinating things out of my script. (A five-minute monologue to camera on a windy beach isn't interesting.) I recommend you at least get the book from your local library. For example... FACT: The requirement for muzzling dogs extended to tiny, tame lapdogs, but not to "sporting" dogs, those used for hunting -- because the men writing the laws didn't want to muzzle their own dogs. (Their dogs were upper class, manly dogs, how could they be rabid?) FACT: The first ever human vaccine was created for rabies, by Louis Pasteur -- the medical genius who gave his name to pasteurisation, among many other things. If you're at risk these days, you can get vaccinated: but it's not given as standard in the UK, because, hey, we don't have rabies -- and it's a better idea to vaccinate the animals that might carry it. FACT: Before the EU pet travel scheme came into force in 2000, any animal coming into the UK had to be quarantined -- completely separated from its owners and other animals -- for three months to be sure it wasn't rabid. Not many people took their pets overseas. Seriously, I got really absorbed in researching this. Further reading: "How Britain's Rabid Obsession Has Altered the Channel Tunnel", New York Times, 1993, http://www.nytimes.com/1993/12/10/news/10iht-rabid.html and another plug for "Mad Dogs and Englishmen", http://amzn.to/1xr1x2B
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