Background: The cost-benefit of raccoon rabies control strategies such as oral rabies vaccination (ORV) are under evaluation. As an initial quantification of the potential cost savings for a control program, the collection of selected rabies cost data was pilot tested for five counties in New York State (NYS) in a three-year period. Methods: Rabies costs reported to NYS from the study counties were computerized and linked to a human rabies exposure database. Consolidated costs by county and year were averaged and compared. Results: Reported rabies-associated costs for all rabies variants totalled 2.1million,forhumanrabiespostexposureprophylaxes(PEP)(90.9784,529). Average costs associated with the raccoon variant varied across counties from 440to1,885 per PEP, 14to44 per specimen, and 0.33to15 per pet vaccinated. Conclusion: Rabies costs vary widely by county in New York State, and were associated with human population size and methods used by counties to estimate costs. Rabies cost variability must be considered in developing estimates of possible ORV-related cost savings. Costs of PEPs and specimen preparation/shipments, as well as the costs of pet vaccination provided by this study may be valuable for development of more realistic scenarios in economic modeling of ORV costs versus benefits