The Truth About Rabies in Cats
It’s rare for a feral cat to have rabies
While it’s important to know the facts about rabies, most people are surprised to know that feral cats are generally healthy and are not the animals spreading this disease.
In fact, they are usually just as healthy as pet cats, although they often get a bad reputation for spreading disease.
Cats have instincts that guide them to stay away from animals that are sick.
Since these animals are defensive, and not offensive, they will try to do anything they can to prevent running into other animals, especially wild ones that may attack. The animals that they hunt for food rarely have rabies.
Since feral cats aren’t socialized to come up to and spend time around people, they are not very likely to spread diseases to humans.
They are much happier being by themselves and will try to avoid contact with people as much as possible. This means that people aren’t at risk for feral cats the way that many of them assume they are.
By taking time to understand rabies, how to identify it, and to learn that feral cats are not the real danger, people can better advocate for these animals.
Feral cats are often pointed at as the cause of rabies, but this isn’t true in most cases. Knowing this gives people comfort when dealing with feral cats.