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Subject: Re: Re : Does "Beast of Gevaudan" ring a bell?
From: guivre posted Sat, Jun 18 2005, 7:22am 
Expert warns of more beast attacks
by Joseph Langa, 18 June 2005 - 10:55:33
While villagers in TA Chilikumwendo’s area in Dedza are celebrating the death of a rabid hyena that killed nine people and injured 13 others, veterinary experts have warned of more similar beasts unless government puts in place measures to check the attacks.
Secretary of the Veterinary Association of Malawi Dr Kholiwe Mkandawire called on government in an interview on Wednesday to intensify anti-rabies vaccination in the three affected villages, and find ways of eliminating other similar infested beasts that could invade the area in the next six months.
Mkandawire has also called on government to vaccinate everybody in the three villages that were affected, including their animals, to avoid a repeat of the tragedy.
She said it is likely that the beast had bitten other animals in the bush, and therefore, it is wrong to assume the killing of one marauding beast is the end of the attacks, hence the need for government to take precautionary measures.
Meanwhile government has, through radio announcements heard from Thursday, started calling for those who came into contact with the hyena to get attention at the nearest veterinary station.
Mkandawire said contrary to beliefs by villagers, the veterinary association has ruled out magic or spirits from dead in the Dedza saga, arguing that the manner in which the animal attacked people indicated that it was a rabid hyena.
Haxwell Jamusana assistant director for Parks and Wildlife said the Veterinary Department has already started running public announcements on the radio calling for everyone in the three villages to go for vaccination.
He said they are mainly targeting people who were bitten and those who touched it or touched anything that was in contact with the beast or people who were bitten by the beast.
He said the laboratory results on the test they conducted on the beast have revealed that the hyena was highly rabid and it is dangerous for anyone who contacted it to stay without being vaccinated.
On the call to poison the other hyenas in the forest to avoid similar occurrences Jamusana said they will conduct a survey in the area and the nearby forests in Dzalanyama to determine what action to take.
But he said they cannot just poison or set up traps saying doing so will be going against wild life regulations.
The villagers insist the hyena was a spirit of one of the villagers who resurrected, saying they have already sent two people to a witch-doctor to find out the truth on who among the dead suspects had organised such a demonic act in the three villages.
TA Chilikumwendo who visited the affected villages and attended the mass burial of the deceased also dismissed the theory of a rabid hyena, saying from the manner the animal terrorised the villages he was sure it was not an ordinary beast.
“I have advised the three village headmen and their group village headman Khomela to meet and discuss the situation,” said TA Chilikumwendo. “This can’t be a natural beast.”
Khomela and one of the victims, village headman Chombola who also lost a sister and a niece, agreed the beast was not a natural one, adding that witchcraft was involved.
“We all know a hyena. It's first target is normally livestock, but how come this one was targeting people and feasted on their flesh, but when it killed a goat it did not bother to eat it?
“This is strange, even if we tried to scare it with fire it did not move an inch. That’s not how hyenas behave. They easily get scared, and mind you, they even run away from their own shadows in the moonlight,” said Chombola.
Some villagers also wondered why the beast was targeting people of the same family and clan, noting that it did not kill people in other villages like Kanjelwa where police and game rangers finally managed to kill it.
Mkandawire insisted the animal was a rabid hyena and that her association’s concern was that over the years, government has not been active in anti-rabies vaccination campaigns. She said there is a strong likelihood the beast got the rabies from rabid dogs in surrounding villages.
Mkandawire said as an expert she knows very well that when rabid dogs bite wild animals they pass on rabies to them, and in turn the beasts enter villages aiming at any living creature including human beings.
She said it was surprising that government did not seem immediately bothered to warn people in the aftermath of the Dedza hyena saga, and vaccinate affected people with a Human Anti Rabies Vaccine.
“The vaccine costs as high as K10,000 to K25,000 per person. It is therefore certain that no common man can afford it. This is why we are saying it is government’s responsibility to make the vaccine available all over the country,” said Mkandawire, adding that when wild animals catch rabies, the only remedy is to eliminate them through food poising in the bush.
Government spokesperson Ken Lipenga did not immediately spell out measures government would take when he delivered condolences in Parliament on Wednesday, but only said it was pleasing that the animal was finally killed.
Leader of Opposition in Parliament John Tembo, who also comes from Dedza, said rabid beasts were increasingly becoming a terror because government had relaxed in the anti-rabies campaign.
The hyena, which was killed around 5 pm on Tuesday, caused unrest in the villages forcing people to leave their homes to camp in schools and at village headman Chombola’s place under police guard.
Some opted to sleep on top of granaries and houses because they could not take chances even with the police around. Traditional markets which normally take place on Mondays had to be closed as people panicked when news of the marauding beast went round.
When the hyena was finally killed, villagers jubilated, some of them bursting into tears of joy as police and rangers fired over 100 shots into the animal, which was found in a house in the deserted village headman Kanjelwa’s area.

http://www.nationmalawi.com/articles.asp?articleID=11197
Subject: Re: Re : Does "Beast of Gevaudan" ring a bell?
From: Panthera posted Sat, Jun 18 2005, 9:56am 
Interesting. Maneaters are often labeled supernatural beasts by the locals, I'm sure it explains a lot about the exaggeration surrounding the beast of Gevaudan. I certainly hope that the rabies vaccine campaign is successful. As social animals, the hyena could have easily come across and infected other hyenas.
Subject: Re: Re : Does "Beast of Gevaudan" ring a bell?
From: solarwind posted Sat, Jun 18 2005, 11:43am 
Me too...I also hope that we don't have any more serious rabies variants popping up- i.e vaccine resistant strains. That would be a nightmare. Imagine if the incubation period were somehow shortened to one or two days in a vaccine resistant strain? Not a pretty picture.

Keep growling, I'm reloading.

$!lv3r


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