Ending rabies all starts with one shot

Around the world, a person dies from rabies every nine minutes, with 99% of human rabies deaths coming from dog bites.

The solution? Vaccinate dogs and stop rabies in its tracks. Vaccinating a dog doesn’t just protect them, it shields the next dog too, and the community around them.

That’s why this October we embarked on the Big Shot — a mass vaccination drive in Cambodia with our sister charity Worldwide Veterinary Service (WVS). Our goal was to vaccinate 200,000 dogs in just 14 days. And we did it!

Working alongside WVS, local vets and international volunteers, our teams travelled across five regions of Cambodia vaccinating our four-legged friends. On their first day on the ground, the team reached 5,404 dogs! Across the whole 14 days they vaccinated an incredible 208,681 dogs.

In small teams, local vets and vet nurses, international volunteers and community workers are allocated an area to cover each day. They travel door-to-door, working with local people to vaccinate their dogs for free.

The jab is quick and painless, and dogs are marked with dog-friendly paint (which washes off after a few days) to show they’ve been vaccinated.

Teams then log the information about each dog into WVS’s dedicated app, which allows us to track the number of dogs vaccinated and the area we’ve covered.

Vaccinating dogs is the most powerful tool in ending rabies.

Dogs serve as a carrier of the disease, which is why they have become a source of fear in many international communities. This fear sadly leads to mistreatment of dogs and unnecessary euthanasia programmes. We want to stop that and create a better world for all dogs.

In countries like Cambodia, dogs often live differently than they do in the UK. They may roam freely, or even appear to be stray. But they are no less loved and cared for by their community.

If we can vaccinate 70% of dogs in a community, the transmission rate drops massively. Each vaccinated dog becomes shield to stop the spread of the disease.

We believe dogs deserve to live safe, healthy lives wherever they are in the world. So we’re on a mission to make three more countries rabies-free by 2029.

As well as mass vaccination drives, we work around the world to improve dog welfare through veterinary care, education, vaccination programmes and long-term partnerships. We’re committed to helping 3 million dogs globally, every year.

Find out more about our international work.