The veterinary surgeons are the qualified professionals for controlling animal diseases and it is their prime duty and responsibility. The 'Rabies' which is a highly fatal zoonotic disease mainly transmitted from dogs is eliminated in most of developed countries by well planned prevention programs. Being an island, it is very very easy to eliminate the disease if a proper master plan is implemented in Sri Lanka. More than half a decade, dog rabies control programs conducted by health ministry of this country but so far they were unable to show a drastic improvement although billions of public money is wasted. Ultimately, the government took a decision recently to hand over the responsibility to the veterinary professionals who are the specially qualified experts on control of animal diseases. All over the world, prime responsibility for animal disease control is assigned to veterinarians. Human Rabies can easily be eradicated by eradicating dog rabies in this country since the dog is the transmitter in 99% of human cases. It needs only a master plan for about 10 years which should be implemented uninterruptedly. The Department of Animal Production Health has all the resources, expertise and island wide  network of dedicated and well trained veterinary surgeons and assistants to achieve this goal.

By eradicating the disease, country could save billions of funds which can be utilized for the development of the country. This is a national issue and higher authorities of the country should not take partial decisions based on misleading information. The cabinet decision which was taken due to the influence of the Minister of Health to take over the Rabies control program back to the Health Ministry couple of days ago is totally biased and not based on real facts and figures. This decision was not taken for favor of the country instead it was taken to satisfy a team of Public Health Inspectors and few non government private teams who have earned a lot through government contracts. The Rabies control program under the Health Ministry was a mafia of allied teams whose primary objective was to earn huge amounts of government money and not interested in seeing an end of Rabies. It was obvious and general public even has witnessed the truth. 

We urge government not to implement the cabinet decision and we request to call all the parties including Department of Animal Production and Health, Department of Health (DAPH), Faculty of Veterinary Medicine and Animal Sciences, Trade unions of both sides and interested non government organizations for a discussion to identify the real scenario. Further, we highly stress the government to look at the examples in developed countries and move forward by taking wise decisions in order to save public money. It is a prime duty of public representatives in the government to assure a disease free living environment to the general public. As veterinarians we are ready to take responsibility of eradicating Rabies in Sri Lanka by conducting a national program lead by veterinarians with the support of all the related sectors by working under a master plan. So, Dear HE the president, Hon. Prime Minister and Hon. Minister of Health, please withdraw the recent cabinet paper and let the DAPH to continue the Rabies control program which was already started eight months before on a well planned schedule and achieved successful results.