Cat Chat Feline Forum

The daily mail has managed to combine 4 of its most liked topics Badger and cat hating , immigration and causing a panic.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/artic ... ssion.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
No ones knows how the cats got TB but some had bites and scratches so they are blaming badgers. Neither a cat or badger have any inclination of attacking each other and if a badger got hold of a cat it would be lucky to survive.
Its possible that cats caught it from humans. TB is mutating constantly because of antibiotics and so the change is likly to be because of this.
Im more likely to catch it from the school i work in which as a large asian population than im ever from my cats

I also have a concern about the repercussions which result from the media treatment of this topic. In the past it has been clearly demonstrated how easily some sections of society can be whipped up into a frenzy over such things and I would not be at all surprised to find animal shelters overwhelmed by people wanting to get rid of their cats. Let's hope I am wrong and the press and general population keep this in proportion. In my opinion there are more chances of catching all sorts of nasties from my fellow human beings as opposed to my cat.

Totally agree - when I first saw the article in the papers this morning my heart sank; and I bet that of most involved with rescues did the same.

This will bring out all the stupid cat hater trolls yet again !!

I have caught more awful germs and infections from humans in my life than I ever could from a cat !!!

Daily Mail as usual blowing things out of proportion...so annoying....grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr

And the interesting thing is that one of the people that commented said she had two dogs that caught bovine TB which was then passed on to her family.... but nothing ever reported about that was it?

Because then there would be a huge outcry about the beef industry etc; whereas cats and badgers are 'easy' targets.

Quite agree. These scare stories are so irresponsible. I understand health problems have to be highlighted but when this sort of thing gets reported, it gets blown completely out of proportion and people panic. I remember a few years ago Toxoplasmosis being caught from cats was in the papers and so many people panicked and wanted to rehome their cats!!

Meriad, it is bovine TB that the cats have been passing on (as have the badgers).

According to the news the cats that passed on the disease were recognisably very sick, so I guess it's worth checking the symptoms of TB in cats.

I also hate the way the Daily Fail tries to whip up hatred. Their normal targets are sharks, foxes and false widow spiders, but often dip into attacking cats and dogs (and, of course, immigrants, the EU, the Labour party, people on benefits and the poor!).

A vet on the radio said you had more chance of winning the lottery jackpot than catching bovine TB from your cat, even if they were already sick.

As expected, the tabloid rags are having a field day, with the Daily Tory being the worst, followed by The Sun.

Like the rest of you, my heart just sank when I saw this hit the news, and I was completely unsurprised to see it on the front page of the Daily Mail this morning. That paper really is a panic-mongering rag. Interestingly, one of the other tabloids ran a front page article about Dogs and TB today as well, but that's less interesting to cat-hating Mail readers.

I was at least relieved to see that even the Mail made the point that there are only 25 cases (on average) of TB in cats each year. TB is usually passed to humans through sores on the cat's body, so it is very advanced by then. I just hope the readers managed to make it that far through the article before they rushed out of the house in a frenzy of feline genocide.

On the plus side, it will at least make responsible cat owners (and some less so) look out for the symptoms and may make them more inclined to seek veterinary advice if the cat's looking unwell, TB or otherwise.