Pet owner clarifies rabies victim's tale

The owner of a dog suspected to have bitten a Virac woman who later died of rabies clarified that it was another canine which was responsible for the incident.

Pedro Arcilla, Jr., 42, told the Tribune that sometime between 9:30 to 10 P.M. of July 22, Marlon Parro and cousin Romeo and Allan Rubia came to their house in Calatagan and alleged that Parro's mother,  Rebecca, 41, was bitten by Arcilla's dog at 6 P.M.

Concerned about the victim's safety. Arcilla had Parro taken to the Eastern Bicol Medical Center where she was injected with anti-rabies vaccine. The treatment was repeated a week later on July 29, a day after a rabid black dog, not owned by Arcilla, was shot and killed inside his compound.

Sometime on August 10 and 14, Arcilla claimed, money was given to Parro's husband who was supposed to take his wife to the hospital for the second injection on the last week of August. It never passed as police conducted a raid on Marlon Parro's hideout near the Arcilla house and found stolen items there.

The elder Parro, embarrassed by his son's involvement in criminal activities, allegedly left for Manila and probably forgot to have his wife injected for the second time. She died at the hospital 55 days after the alleged biting incident.

Arcilla informed that right after Parro's biting incident was brought to his notice, he immediately had his black dog chained for observation. The dog, however, did not exhibit rabies infection two weeks after the incident. It was the black dog slain inside the Arcilla gates that tested positive when its head was examined by the Regional Institute of Tropical Medicine in Legaspi City.