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Rabies: A Public Health Victory

Rabies is a topic that can come up when discussing cats living outdoors—often by people who mistakenly believe that feral cats don’t belong there. They might use rabies as a reason to introduce catch and kill plans to remove cats from certain areas, saying feral cats pose a public health risk because they could have rabies.

Billed as a “killer disease” with its own awareness day and hyped-up media attention any time it is mentioned, rabies is actually a public health victory—there were only 25 confirmed cases of rabies in humans in America from 2000-2007. None of those cases were caused by cats. In that same time period, there were 27,541 cases of West Nile virus in humans in this country, and 1,080 people died of it.

Alley Cat Allies has the facts on rabies to shatter the myths about the disease—so that you fully understand and can inform others. Armed with this information, you can spread the word that feral cats do not pose a public health risk.

Here you’ll find a full-range of information and facts about the rabies virus: its low prevalence in feral cats, how Trap-Neuter-Return programs help, how long rabies vaccines last and how they can negatively affect cats’ health, the history of rabies in the United States; and proven effective programs which target the true sources of rabies: wildlife.