The grasslands of the Maasai Mara of southwest Kenya are home to a spectacular diversity of wildlife and are also the ancestral homeland of the Maasai people.  The Maasai, along with their dogs, have herded cattle, sheep, and goats here for centuries.  Dogs play a critical role in protecting livestock from many free-roaming predators, including hyenas, lions, cheetahs, and leopards.  Unvaccinated dogs with rabies can infect other dogs, livestock, humans, and also wild animals.  Vaccinating dogs protects domestic animals, people, and the magnificent wildlife that anchors Kenyan tourism. Rabies education increases awareness of the danger of dog bites and rabies infection.

Initiatives to vaccinate dogs and educate children are challenged by transportation difficulties and community isolation. Roads are mostly dirt, poorly maintained, and subject to flash floods.  Most families have neither cars nor motorbikes, and homesteads are spaced far apart.  Dogs often roam freely, and few people have leashes to control them.  Mobile vaccination clinics frequently rely on children to carry their pets long distances to be vaccinated, and sometimes vaccinations are given door-to-door.  When providing rabies education, instructors may travel several hours by motorbike carrying printed teaching materials to rural primary schools.  All of this work is labor-intensive and time-consuming.

Rabies in humans is completely preventable if dogs are vaccinated against rabies, people avoid dog bites, and proper health care is administered after a bite.  Vaccination for dogs and education for children are cost-effective ways to promote both human and animal health.  These initiatives safeguard the livestock and livelihoods of local Maasai people, protect the health of valuable wildlife resources, and help to sustain the vulnerable Maasai Mara ecosystem.