Matawa Animal Wellness Services Marks World Rabies Day with Historic Milestones—And A Call for Equity

Press Release

September 26, 2025

THUNDER BAY, ON — On this World Rabies Day, Matawa Animal Wellness Services is celebrating a breakthrough: by the end of 2025, every Matawa First Nation will have had the chance to protect their pets and people from rabies through in-community vaccination clinics and access to a recently launched regional rabies surveillance helpline.

These achievements are a first for Matawa First Nations, many of which are rural or remote fly-in communities without access to regular veterinary care and limited rabies surveillance. But alongside celebration comes a stark reminder of the unequal access to animal health care that puts people in rural and remote communities at risk.

“Every pet vaccinated and every call to the helpline is a step toward closing the gap in animal wellness in Matawa communities,” said Judi Cannon, Indigenous animal wellness specialist with Matawa Animal Wellness Services who works in partnership with animal wellness providers to increase access to veterinary care in Matawa communities. “The sharp rise in confirmed rabies cases across northern Ontario this year underscores the need to protect all communities from rabies, including First Nation communities who are at higher risk.”

Rabies in humans is a rare but often fatal virus that’s spread from the salvia of infected mammals, like bats and foxes. In May 2025, the Ontario Animal Health Network reported five confirmed cases of rabies in foxes across northern Ontario. Prior to that, the last confirmed case of rabies in the region was detected in a dog from Kashechewan in 2013. Last year, Ontario had its first human rabies death since 1967 when a child contracted rabies from a bat in northern Ontario.

Rabies is endemic in foxes in northern Ontario, but surveillance in the region is limited. The Matawa Rabies and Diseases Surveillance Helpline, launched in collaboration with the Ontario government, aims to improve rabies surveillance by offering Matawa members a place to ask questions and report suspected rabies cases.

Public health guidelines recommend annual rabies vaccinations for pets, and southern Ontario communities regularly offer low- or no-cost clinics. Matawa Animal Wellness Services has helped administer hundreds of free rabies vaccines, but limited veterinary resources in northern Ontario leave communities at risk. Matawa Animal Wellness Services urges governments, public health agencies, and veterinary partners to ensure Canada’s rabies guidelines are applied equitably.

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For more information, please contact Judi Cannon, Indigenous Animal Wellness Specialist with Matawa’s Animal Wellness Services, at (807) 620-3908.

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