Refusing rabies vaccine

[leviathan77]

My 1 and a half year old cat has been vaccinated once with PureVax. He is an indoor only cat and I no longer want him vaccinated. It is not state law but county law that he get the rabies shot every year or the 3 year shot. I got a letter from my county threating to fine me if he is not vaccinated soon. I can call them and tell them I no longer own the cat. What are the chances they investigate? They can't come to my house without a search warrant right?

 

[kittymomma1122]

I do not know, but they do come on your property.  I had an indoor dog, but we did always have a doghouse in our back yard.  After she was gone we still had the doghouse.  I did not get my rabies and license after she passed away of course and I got a letter in the mail from our township.  It stated we had a dog house and no rabies/license on file and we needed to come in with our rabies tag and get a license.  I had to call them and inform them that our dog had been gone for 2  yrs. The thing that I found odd is that was no way they could see the dog house from the road, they would have had to walk around my house/garage and look in my fenced in yard to see the house.

As stated below by Catapault: My indoor only cats all have rabies.  My vet insist upon it as we do get bats in Michigan.  A bat was in our house once after we had some work done in our attic.

 

[catapault]

Unlike other many diseases a mammal cannot develop immunity to rabies. Only a vaccine provides protection. Post-exposure a human can get a series of inoculations to prevent the disease from developing but once it develops there is no cure for rabies.

Can you guarantee your cat will never sneak out of the house, a rabid bat will never get into your house, a disaster such as Hurricane Katrina will never devastate your house? Your cat will never bite a visitor to your home?

Will your veterinarian continue to treat your cat if you do not get it vaccinated?

It is one thing if your cat is healthy and receives the rabies vaccine. It seems to me that it would be a different story if your cat becomes ill with some other issue - IBD, pancreatitis, some other virus - and a rabies vaccine is required at that time or the vet will not treat.

 

[leviathan77]

@catapault

Thank you for your post. My cat will never get out of my house except in the case of a natural disaster. I am willing to take my chances because the risks associated with the vaccine outweigh any reward. There is a reason it's not state law and no one is going to tell me what I can and can't do with my cats. I have talked to dozens of other cat owners in my area and they do not register their cats for that very reason.