Feral Kitty. Photo: Trisha Spears
According to a report in the Asbury Park Press, Point Pleasant Beach, New Jersey, plans to round up feral cats after an outbreak of rabies in a town which is home to an estimated 300 stray cats.
In recent weeks, many raccoons and some feral cats have tested positive for the virus after being captured throughout northern Ocean County by animal control officers.
What triggered debate on this round up at a town hall meeting? Attacks by cats on 2 children in separate incidents. A cat that tested positive for rabies attacked a 17 year old in his backyard, the report said. The boy has started the rabies vaccine series.
There were tensions in the town hall though on how to handle the situation. The rabies outbreak has divided some in town between those people who want to protect the feral cat colonies and those who want to round up and destroy all the strays.
Rabies is an acute viral infection that is transmitted to humans or other mammals usually through the saliva from a bite of an infected animal. It is also rarely contracted through breaks in the skin or contact with mucous membranes.
According to the Control of Communicable Diseases Manual, all mammals are susceptible to rabies. Raccoons, skunks, foxes, bats, dogs, coyotes and cats are the likely suspects. Other animals like otters and ferrets are also high risk. Mammals like rabbits, squirrels, rodents and opossums are rarely infected.
Some infected animals can appear very aggressive, attacking for no reason. Some may act very tame.
The symptoms of rabies are as follows. Initially, like in many diseases, the symptoms are non-specific; fever, headache and malaise. This may last several days. At the site of the bite there may be some pain and discomfort. Symptoms then progress to more severe: confusion, delirium, abnormal behavior and hallucinations. If it gets this far, the disease is nearly 100% fatal.
If you are bit, first, clean the wound well with soap and water for 5-10 minutes. This will help reduce the chance of getting other bacterial infections and some studies show it can reduce the likelihood of getting rabies.
Next, get a good description of the animal for Animal Control so it can be picked up for quarantine or rabies testing.
Go see your family physician or the emergency room. Though technically not a medical emergency, it is important to seek medical attention quickly so proper, timely treatment is given.
Your doctor will evaluate the type of exposure (bite, scratch), and the type of animal that you had contact with. If post-exposure treatment is required it will likely be a combination of Rabies Immune Globulin (RIG) and Rabies vaccine.
The RIG is given in one dose. RIG is basically pre-formed antibody that will provide immediate protection until you respond to the vaccine. The vaccine (which is a series of 5 shots) will help your body produce antibody to the virus, but this takes some time.
Comments
I cannot think of a much more cruel treatment of animals than to allow the spread of a disease like rabies which makes the animal suffer tremendously as well as promoting further spread of the disease and attacks on people! Those feral colonies need to be culled in order to stop the disease! You would think these so called "animal empathizers" would realize this, but of course who ever said they had any intelligence? They are are full of rhetoric and bereft of common sense! This was done a while back near where I used to live for the same reason and it worked! Stopped the disease dead in its tracks and there were already to many strays so the cull was good for many reasons! They must believe in the animals rights to suffer! Bunch of Abderites!
I do not like the idea of killing cats-it is NOT their fault people dump them out on the streets and it happens all the time. It's not their fault. A homeless cat loses no matter what you do. Actually many of these "feral cats" are quite tame because they belonged to someone and they become a bother so they dumped them. Some may be afraid - wouldn't you? Cats are small, and we are monsters in comparison. What we do to them validates what kind of monsters we truly are. But cat colonies bring suffering to them too-they often die of diseases, get hit by cars, or become targets of cruel teenagers who shoot them with arrows. God the human race really sucks.
Part of the problem are law makers who fight and defeat spay/neuter legislation to support the breeders. While a buying public buys purebred cats and dogs, these mix breeds get tossed out on the streets and left to die. Of course they are hungry and will go after sick animals because they are easy prey; and rabid animals are docile and fear no predators. This problem of feral cats was created by human beings and rabies is the fruits of their cruelty.
So true,Jack. Luke is a total idiot to want to go along with the mandatory spay/neuter of all animals. The reason we have all of these problems is crazy animal rights people like PETA and HSUS who think putting any animal down is "cruel". I was born in Europe, we did not have vets to spay/neuter our pets. Most of the puppies or kittens were drowned. Problem solved. it's all these crazy "animal rights "folks that are causing all of these problems.
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