Menominee County officials urge rabies shots for pets before summer

As cabins open and more families head outside across Menominee County, Shawano-Menominee Counties Health Director Nick Mau is pressing pet owners to make sure dogs and cats are protected against rabies before summer activity picks up. The warning is not just about animal health. In Wisconsin, rabies vaccination is required by law, and a lapse can set off quarantine rules, paperwork problems and a preventable exposure risk for children, neighbors and veterinarians.

Wisconsin law says dogs must be revaccinated before the certificate expires, or within three years after the previous vaccination if no expiration date is listed. If a dog is brought into Wisconsin after it is 5 months old, the owner must vaccinate it within 30 days unless the animal already has a valid rabies certificate. State agriculture officials also require a current veterinarian-administered rabies vaccination for dogs and domestic cats 5 months and older in pet-movement paperwork.

The public-health concern is rooted in what moves through the woods, yards and outbuildings around Menominee County. Wisconsin Department of Health Services says bats and skunks are the state’s primary reservoirs of rabies, and the Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection says skunks and bats are the animals most likely to carry the virus. Rabies has also occurred in dogs, cats, foxes, raccoons and livestock. State health officials say the last four human rabies cases in Wisconsin were in 1959, 2000, 2004 and 2010, and all four came from bats.

The message reaches households in Keshena, Neopit, Zoar and surrounding communities through the Shawano-Menominee Counties Health Department, which serves both counties. That shared public-health reach matters in a region where pets, children and wildlife often overlap at homes, parks, lakes and rural properties, and where the Menominee Indian Tribe of Wisconsin is a major local government and community presence.

State officials are urging residents to keep pets from roaming freely, avoid wildlife contact and not leave pet food outside. The department’s 2026 rabies map, revised May 18, showed 8 reported animal rabies cases statewide. Wisconsin also requires a 10-day quarantine for any dog or cat that bites a person, another reminder that prevention is simpler than the response that follows an exposure. For Menominee County households, the immediate step is clear: check the vaccine record and get the shot updated before summer turns outdoor contact into a larger risk.