Common Questions

What you need to know about:

Rabies

 

Rabies Control and Feral Cats in the United States PDF

Humans contracting rabies in the United States is extremely rare. In fact, the fear of rabies far outweighs the actual threat. According to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), from 1990 – 2005 there were only 37 laboratory confirmed cases of rabies in the United States, and of those cases at least 7 were known to originate in other countries.

Zero of the 37 cases of rabies in humans were contracted from a cat.

While no one underestimates the lethal nature of this disease when it is left untreated, the truth is that ongoing immunization, prevention, and awareness campaigns - currently exceeding $300 million annually (mostly for dog vaccinations) - have controlled the danger of rabies in humans. There has been no human death from rabies attributed to transmission from a cat recorded in the U.S. in three decades.¹ Rabies is not a public health crisis in the United States; in fact, rabies control is a public health victory.

Of the estimated 150 million cats in the U.S., only 270-300 test positive for rabies annually. This percentage is staggeringly small compared to the outsized amount of attention feline rabies receives.

¹ “Emerging Epidemiology of Bat-Associated Cryptic Cases of Rabies in Humans in the United States,” CID 2002, 35: 738-747.

Predation

 

Understanding Cats and Predation PDF

Major studies have shown that cats do not have a measurable detrimental impact on wildlife species. However, many people still feel that cats are to blame for the depletion of songbirds and other animals. Two studies most often quoted to support placing blame on feral cats are the Temple/Coleman or “Wisconsin study” and the Churcher/Lawton study.

Some groups and individuals use these studies in misguided efforts to discredit nonlethal population reduction, or Trap-Neuter-Return (TNR), the only effective method to humanely reduce feral cat numbers. However, over 60 studies on feral cats have been written from different continents throughout the world—all showing three important points:

• Cats are opportunistic feeders, eating what is most easily available. Feral cats are scavengers, and many rely on garbage and handouts from people;
• Cats are rodent specialists. Birds make up a small percentage of their diet when they rely solely on hunting for food
• And, cats may prey on a population without destroying it. If this were not so, we would no longer have any mice around.

The Importance of Eartipping

 

Eartipping: Feral Identification Protocol PDF

Eartipping is the only effective method that currently exists to identify a sterilized feral cat in a managed colony. Immediate visual identifications are necessary in order to:

• Show animal control officers that a cat has been sterilized and vaccinated, and is part of a managed colony. Feral cats that are not eartipped are usually destroyed immediately.
• Assist caregivers in identifying which cats in their colonies have already been sterilized and vaccinated. A cat with no eartip signals to caregivers that this cat has not yet been sterilized and needs to be humanely trapped for spay or neuter and vaccination.

Feral Cat Statistics

 

A single female cat and her offspring cannot really produce 420,000 cats over just seven years.PDF

Dr. Griffin's Favorite Quote: If one unspayed female cat produces two litters per year, and two kittens per litter survive to reproduce, and none of these cats are ever spayed or neutered, the total population multiplies in five years, or ten generations, to 59,049.

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