Feral cats pose real rabies risk

Demanding a property owner vaccinate feral cats, as the Rockland Board of Health recently did with a Tomkins Cove woman, might seem a little extreme. But, if someone is feeding the cats, then someone is encouraging them to stay, and the colony to grow.

The risk is real: Rockland has been a rabies-designated county since the early 1990s. That means the area has active cases of rabies in animals. The fatal disease is mostly detected in skunks and raccoons. Just this fall, a woman in Nyack ended up needing rabies shots when a stray cat around her property was diagnosed with rabies.

The Rockland County Board of Health is enforcing a rule in the county sanitary code that states: "... owner means any person keeping, harboring or having charge or control of, or permitting any dog, cat or domesticated ferret to remain on or be lodged or fed within such person's house, yard or premises."

In other words, you feed it, you own it.

The fine for failure to comply with regulations requiring cats to be vaccinated against rabies: $500. The cost of the vaccination at the health department rabies clinic is $5. It is certainly hard work to capture and transport a feral cat, but it is the responsible thing to do for someone who is attracting the cats with food.

The real way to stem the threat of rabies is to curb the feral cat population through an aggressive spay and neuter program. While many groups in Rockland work to aid people trying to take care of strays, the county lacks a larger program, such as a mobile van that would go to larger cat colonies and spay, neuter, vaccinate and release.

That is a costly proposition, but one the county must take into consideration.




A successful trap-neuter-release program, TNR in the vernacular of animal activists, needs to include all interested parties, says Ilene Axelband, who runs the nonprofit grassroots organization called CATS (Caring About the Strays) in Rockland. Rescue groups, local government, the health department, local shelters and veterinarians need to join efforts. "We're just not sure how to do it yet," Axelband says, "but in needs to be a group effort financially and physically." Action needs to take place consistently, not just when there's a report or rabies.

The Rockland Health Department holds three rabies vaccination clinics a year. The next one is 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. April 15 at the Fire Training Center, 35 Firemen's Memorial Drive, Ramapo. There is no charge for the vaccination, but a $5 donation per pet will be accepted to help defray the cost.
Petco on Route 59 in Nanuet offers rabies vaccinations on two Saturdays a month. The rabies shot alone is $14. The next one is 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Jan. 27. Call 845-624-5741 for information.
TARA (The Animal Rights Alliance), a nonprofit organization that runs a mobile van in Orange and Sullivan counties, will come to Rockland sites if a sponsor can provide 25 cats or more. The cats are spayed or neutered, and get rabies vaccines, for $50 an animal. For information, contact 845-754-7100.
Information about rabies is available from the county health department at 845-364-2656.

Reference:nyjournalnews