Sri Lankan Dog Rescue Reputation Tarnished
Animal SOS Sri Lanka, has issued a notice regarding coverage of the story about the rabid puppy from Sri Lanka. The charity says its reputation has been tarnished by our 'inaccurate reporting' and that it has never spent a penny of charity funds importing street dogs from Sri Lanka into the UK.
Kim Cooling wrote to us saying that the animals that were imported into the UK, including Milly, the pup who had rabies, were sponsored by individuals, not herself or her Charity. All the animals were vaccinated against rabies, blood tested and health checked by numerous vets before a health certificate was issued in Sri Lanka.
She says:
"There was never any risk to public health as the pup died in quarantine, and those who were nipped by the pup were all vaccinated against rabies.
"Four other puppies were killed by DEFRA as a precautionary measure, none were showing signs of the disease, and we have since been informed that they did not have rabies."
Libel..
These points were made in a strongly worded letter to UKPets which was attached to an email entitled "Possible libel action re rabid puppy story", and followed our article: Restrictions Lifted On Rabies Kennels (07 May 2008).
The short article which was about the re-opening of a quarantine kennel following the incident, made no mention that the charity had funded the importation of these animals. It did however contain the following line:
"The infected puppy was one of eleven dogs that Kim had imported from Sri Lanka."
We have now corrected the article to read:
"The infected puppy was one of eleven dogs that Kim had assisted to import from Sri Lanka."