“I was bitten by a rabid dog” – Ballito man’s crowd funding campaign
For his 40th birthday, Mark Taylor wants to stand up against rabies and hopes you will join him.
The recent rabies outbreak in KZN pushed a Ballito resident to jump into action based on a rabies scare of his own.
Mark Taylor was bitten by a rabid dog in November 2012, after he rescued a dog that had been hit by a car on the N3 near the Marianhill toll.
“As I drove up towards the dog, I noticed it lifted up its head and I knew it was alive. Being an animal lover, I decided to stop and try rescue it. Against my better judgment, I laid him on the backseat of my car,” said Taylor, who is a architect and lives in Ballito.
He drove straight to the vet and as he bent over to pick up the dog, the worst happened.
“The dog jumped up and bit me on the side of my face. It ran away, but I managed to catch it.”
Luckily, the vet immediately suspected rabies and, after tending to Taylor’s open wound, sent him to the nearby hospital to get the rabies prophylaxis treatment.
The dog was put down and despite the dog’s saliva sample testing negative for the fatal disease, the vet sent samples of his brain for further tests.
The results came back positive.
Below is a video of a rabid dog:
“I completed the treatment, but the experience weighed heavily on me psychologically.
“Still today, I struggle to wrap my head around the ‘what ifs’. I was fortunate, but many others have not been so lucky.”
For this reason, he said you have to go for the necessary treatment as soon as you have been bitten or even scratched by a stray animal be it a dog, cat, rat or mouse.
“If the medication is administered correctly then the disease is also 100% preventable.”
After watching a rabies report on Carte Blanche recently, Taylor was inspired by the remarkable work Dr Vanessa Meyer and her team from Rabies Awareness Eshowe are doing.
“There has been a 400% increase in animal rabies over the past few months and the disease has claimed four lives in the last two months alone.”
To help Rabies Awareness Eshowe as well as Ballito’s Furever Pet Rescue program called SAVE (Steralize, Assist, Vaccinate, Education), Taylor started a crowd funding mission through Backabuddy with the aim to raise R10 000.
So far, R2592 has been raised.
To donate, click HERE or share the post on social media to help raise awareness.
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