you see cats everywhere in the streets in Israel...

Dr. Yoni Peres, director of the teaching hospital at Hebrew University’s School of Veterinary Medicine, was shmoozing recently with Dr. Stanley Newman, a retired veterinarian from Springfield, N.J., about how rabies affect American and Israeli cats and dogs. “In the States,” said Peres, “the reservoir for rabies is the raccoon. Because people keep their dogs at home, they don’t get mixed up with raccoons. But cats sometimes go outside and have contact with raccoons, and that is how they get the rabies. In America, cats are more high risk than dogs for rabies. “Here,” the Israeli veterinarian added, “the situation is the opposite, because the reservoirs for rabbis are the wolves, jackals and hyenas. Those animals live around towns and cities. When they get rabid, they lose their fear of man. They come in and attack anything. If they encounter a cat, the cat is fast enough to run away but dogs [which many citizens allow to run free in the streets] are more clumsy and are more curious, so they get in contact with these animals. So the dog is the number one rabid animal in Israel rather than the cat.”

It's true about the raccoons being the primary vector for rabies in the U.S. However, in many suburban neighborhoods, the raccoons are right in our backyards, increasing the possibility of contact between dogs and raccoons (even though the dogs are kept at home), which is why it's so important to have pets vaccinated.

Where I come from it is mandatory to license dogs and they must have certain vaccinations--including rabies. No debates. As a pet owner, I think that if you are not willing to take proper care of your pet--don't get one! A majority of pet problems are caused by bad owners.

If it foams at the mouth and goes crazy at the sight of water, it’s rabid. Now the question is this: How do you keep asshats, a lot of whom exhibit those very symptoms, on the other side of the fence??

halloween....ooo!

Rick, #4 is absolutely correct: "...if you are not willing to take proper care of your pet--don't get one!" And yes, so is #2 - cats are the major control of both rats and snakes - including poisonous snakes, like the viper - in Israel. Try calling the Min. of Health to complain about rats - they tell you to call an exterminator, and to pay him yourself (for the whole neighbourhood!).