STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. – Despite accounting for more than half of New York City’s rabies cases this year, Staten Island was excluded from a recent city wildlife vaccination initiative.
The New York City Department of Health, alongside the Department of Parks and Recreation and the U.S. Department of Agriculture, announced that it would continue its oral rabies vaccination program for raccoons in select areas of Brooklyn and Queens in May.
The effort involved distributing fish-scented bait packets containing rabies vaccine, which were placed in parks and green spaces where raccoons are commonly found, intending to reduce rabies transmission among wildlife and help protect residents and pets from exposure to the virus…