THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, October 27, 1994 TAG: 9410270451
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A10 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS
DATELINE: CONCORD, N.H. LENGTH: Medium: 92 lines
After selling a kitten that later died of rabies, pet-store owner Tim Jandebeur is paying the price: a death threat, the likelihood of being forced out of business, and the possibility of lawsuits.
Hundreds of people who played with kittens in his store may have to get rabies shots, though no cases of the deadly disease in humans have been reported.
``You want to know the truth, I think I'm out of business,'' said Jandebeur, owner of the Concord Aquarium and Pet Store for four years. ``My wife and I are scared.''
Most pet stores, from independents to chain stores, take precautions to protect themselves and their customers.
Several store owners said Jandebeur took a risk by letting kittens run around his shop so customers could play with them. Other stores don't let animals run free, and some - unlike Jandebeur's - don't take kittens from the public.
``At least once a week, people call to offer a litter of kittens - I turn them down,'' said Chip Davis, owner of The Pet Zone in Concord. ``I'm going to start selling kittens next month, but they'll be purebred from licensed breeders, and they won't be roaming around.''
Davis and other store owners said customers are allowed to handle pets only if they are considering buying.
Jandebeur said he gets kittens from a few local families. Each is inspected by a veterinarian, but cats cannot be vaccinated against rabies until they are about 16 weeks old, he said. Kittens often are sold before then.
Virginia requires that cats and dogs in pet stores be vaccinated against rabies at 4 months old, said Mark Kumph, senior humane officer in Norfolk. Virginia pet stores are required to keep records of animals' shots and to show those records to prospective consumers.
After one kitten sold by Jandebeur died of rabies and four others that probably had the disease also died, state health officials called on anyone who bought kittens at the store or played with them to get shots. Officials said as many as 37 kittens at the store could have been exposed to rabies.
By Wednesday, health officials had accounted for all of those kittens and expected to release test results on the last 12 of them by today. Five that were still at the store did not have rabies.
About 40 people received shots Tuesday at Concord Hospital. On Wednesday, scores were waiting when a special rabies clinic opened at the hospital, and hundreds more were on waiting lists to begin rabies shots.
On a radio talk show, Jandebeur accused the news media of distorting the story and exaggerating the threat. He said his 5-year-old son is getting rabies shots, though Jandebeur is not.
After the rabies report surfaced, he said, the store did only $3 in business Tuesday morning. And he said he had received one death threat: ``Someone called and said that he would come down and kill me if his kid had rabies.'' ILLUSTRATION: Photos
ASSOCIATED PRESS
People who played with kittens at the Concord Aquarium and Pet Store
wait for rabies shots Wednesday at Concord Hospital in New
Hampshire. Hundreds are on waiting lists for the shots.
Denise Wardell bought the black-and-white kitten at left that
triggered the scare in Concord, N.H., when it died of rabies. The
other kitten was destroyed for testing but did not have the
disease.
Graphic
HOW RABIES IS SPREAD
A person can get rabies if he is bitten by an infected animal or if
an infected animal's saliva or urine gets into broken skin, like a
scratch, or into his mouth, nose or eyes.
by CNB