As the coordinator for Two Left Paws Animal Sanctuary's Trap-Neuter-Return (TNR) program, I have serious concerns regarding the Guest Commentary, "Feral cats pose major rabies risk," published Sept. 26 in The Sheboygan Press.
The author of the letter is the president of the American Bird Conservatory. I ask myself, what is the American Bird Conservatory's concern with rabies?" Birds don't get rabies!
So, what is the true agenda behind this letter? The true agenda is to deliberately misrepresent information regarding rabies and feral cats in order to put fear into the community, and to deliberately discount the effectiveness of TNR programs. TNR, where cats are humanely trapped, spayed/neutered and vaccinated, and then returned to their colonies, has been extremely effective in stabilizing and reducing cat populations.
Truth is, rabies vaccines are considered a standard and immensely valuable element of TNR programs. The facts do not support the call for "removing feral cats from the landscape," as the American Bird Conservatory, and contradicts Centers for Disease Control and Prevention research that states that there has been no confirmed cat-to-human rabies transmission in nearly 40 years.
Stop twisting the facts and the fear mongering, which can have disastrous consequences for innocent cats.