to the Florida Animal Control Association

 

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Managing Feral/Unowned/Stray Cats

FACA supports the Rabies Advisory Committee Position Statement in the State of Florida Rabies Prevention and Control in Florida,2006 report:

“Managing Feral/Unowned/Stray Cats (updated 01/06)

The concept of managing free-roaming/feral cats is not tenable on public health grounds because of the persistent threat posed to communities from injury and disease. While the risk for disease transmission from cats to people is generally low when these animals are owned and routinely cared for, free-roaming cats pose a continuous concern to a communities. Children are among the highest risk for disease transmission from these cats.

While free-roaming cats can be vaccinated against rabies, this does not address the ongoing need to provide them health care,medications and prevention of other zoonotic diseases. Should one of these cats bite or scratch a person, it would need to be captured and observed for 10 days for signs and symptoms of rabies,even if it had been previously vaccinated. If the cat is not found, the person bitten would need to undergo rabies post-exposure treatment.

In the past 10 years, cats were reported with rabies more frequently than dogs in Florida. The overwhelming majority of these cats were free-roaming animals. Human rabies in Florida was largely controlled by the removal of stray dogs when dog rabies was common during first half of the 1900s.

Ideally, cats should have regular veterinary care and be maintained inside people’s homes. Allowing cats to roam free is not in the best interests of the community’s health and deliberate release or abandonment of feral or domestic cats is not sanctioned under Florida’s conservation and cruelty laws. Based upon Florida Statutes, Chapter 372.265, cats are not “indigenous” or native to Florida, and due to their adverse impact on wildlife, no permits have been or will be issued by the FWCC to make lawful either the release of feral/free-ranging cats or the establishment of feral/free-ranging cat colonies. Relocating and releasing non-native species into the wild is a violation of Florida Statute 372.265 and Florida Administrative Code 68A-4.005.”

FACA discourages the outdoor feeding of all free-roaming cats because of the significant threat of attracting high risk rabies species, such as raccoons, foxes, skunks, coyotes, etc.