Exposure to rabies does not equal contracting rabies. Seeing a rabid animal or being in proximity to a rabid animal = exposure. Being bitten by a rabid animal, or having its saliva in an open wound means that the person needs to be treated with injection ie they have potentially contracted rabies. None of those rabid cats were vaccinated !
If the CDC has only two known cases of humans contracting rabies from cats in the last 35 years, then these sensationalistic stories with few specific details about feral cats and rabies don’t hold much water. Please note the references in the stories to unvaccinated cats. There is plenty of hysteria with regards to feral cats being terrible vectors of disease. Truly feral cats AVOID humans and are not touchable. Semi-feral cats are touchable only after a human has earned their trust, which usually takes months or longer. Toxoplasmosis can be common in cats but is also very common in urban wildlife like raccoons. It is usually transmitted through oral/fecal contact so wearing gloves when gardening and washing your hands with soap and water after touching an animal’s feces will greatly reduce your risk. It can also be transmitted through raw or undercooked meat:
http://www.nwco.net/044-wildlifediseases/4-4-toxoplasmosis.asp
With regards to the alleged “billions of native animals”
the biggest culprit for this wildly inflated figure is a paper filled with junk science:
http://www.voxfelina.com/2013/05/thre-greater-threat-is-junk-science-an-open-letter-to-the-avma/
If feral cats are living in an urban setting with access to garbage and vermin(if the colony is not managed), how/why would they simultaneously be decimating bird populations that are uncommon within cities ? Cats that have a regular food source do not also voraciously hunt. The greatest threat to wildlife is human encroachment and destruction of their habitat for things like suburbs. Pollution and contamination of water by industry also plays a major role in wildlife mortality and extinction.
The much quoted statistic that feral stray cats only having a life span of 2-5 years is difficult to prove. I have known several elderly stray/feraL cats who lived 9+ years in hostile locations like a garbage dump. There is no reliable way to tabulate this statistic, without micro-chipped data from strays and ferals that is accessible for years (ie technology does not become obsolete). Establishing the age of an adult cat is difficult even with a healthy indoor cat as the condition of the teeth is dependent on genetics as much as the type of food fed, nutrition and access to veterinary dentistry. Even kittens from the same litter can have different stages of development.
Re: mythical sanctuary ie beautiful gardens with free roaming cats with heated shelters and hundreds of full time volunteers and 24 hour medical care. Caboodle Ranch started out with this intent - but went disastrously wrong after they became overwhelmed and mismanaged. Most TNR groups do advocate sanctuary type situations for cats that are ill, disabled, elderly, or show the potential to be successfully socialized. The information here:
http://tntrealitycheck.com/media/ProvidingSanctuary.pdf
deals more with individual management of feral and semi-feral cats that need to be sanctuaried for whatever reason. Taming can be a very labor intensive process, and needs a great deal of patient human input. This does NOT mean taking entire colonies indoors, which is not a great solution unless the colony is only a couple of cats. This paper also strongly makes the case for not taking in more cats than can be attentively cared for.
In short: you seem to be advocating AGAINST TNR in any and all forms, harbour a great deal of suspicion towards feral cats as diseased predators, but offer few solutions except some type of sanctuaried warehousing for 50 million (est) feral, semi-feral and stray cats. I love cats, and help cats, but I think that housing 50 million cats for their 10 year+ lifespan is an extremely expensive and not very workable solution.
Volunteers are doing the bulk of TNR efforts FOR FREE, and TNR groups work along side established rescue groups to make accessible free or low cost spay and neuter to help slow down reproduction/reduce shelter intake/reduce euthanasia rates, as well as advocating that a pet is not disposable, and should be a commitment for that pet’s lifespan.
Euthanizing ALL THE CATS EVERYWHERE is a very expensive and unworkable solution. Does that mean that all pets would be euthanized as well ? Most urban feral colonies are a direct result of people not fixing their pet, then rehoming subsequent litters to people who also do not spay/neuter. Intact cats can be desperate to mate and will get outside by any possible means = a continuously perpetuating cycle.
I hope that since you feel so strongly about sanctuarying cats, that you personally will start by volunteering for a rescue group today to try your own hand at sanctuarying a feral or semi-feral cat. No one person can save them all, but you can start by helping ONE. Please do this.
