Two weeks later and after more than 20 shots, she just hopes that nobody else will have to endure the same hardship.
“I don't want this happening to anyone else,” Bristow said last week, swaddled in bandages after her first round of shots, in which doctors infected the 38-year-old woman with rabies before providing a series of antidotes.
The 10-day period in which officials could have trapped the suspect feline and monitored the animal for rabies has come and gone. Bristow had no other option but to get the rabies shots, which have left her achy and feverish.
Even if officials had trapped the cat, however, and positively identified it as the animal that bit Bristow, health department officials say the woman still would have needed shots.
“She still would have gone through the rabies treatment, because we would not have been certain it was the right cat,” said environmental health supervisor Shannon Therriault.
The wild cat colony at Hollywood Mobile Home Park, where the biting occurred, cropped up several years ago, beginning with three cats and an elderly pet owner who did not spay or neuter the animals, according to Missoula Animal Control director Ed Franceschina.
Recent reports have estimated that between 20 and 50 cats exist in and around the Northside trailer park, officials said, inhabiting a vacant trailer home and adjacent alleyways.
“That's how I understand that particular colony came to exist a year or two ago,” Franceschina said. “Some have branched out on their own, but the bulk of them are centered around that particular trailer park.”
On Sept. 10, two days after Bristow was bitten, the health department issued a notice of violation to Caras Property Management, which runs the trailer court. The notice ordered Caras to begin trapping the animals for quarantine and euthanasia.
According to the document, every tenant must be notified that “cats running at large will be trapped and euthanized.” And it advises that “Caras Property Management will be required to reimburse costs associated with euthanizing and rabies testing of animals collected as part of this Order.”
The letter orders management to instruct any tenants with pets to keep those animals inside during the trapping, which was to be done within 15 calendar days.
Caras responded with a letter from its attorney contesting the notice.
“Be advised that, while my client is taking steps to responsibly address the issues relating to ‘feral cats' on the property, we take issue with the notice and advise you that we will not assume liability for reimbursement of euthanization and rabies testing,” according to the letter by attorney Tom Orr.
The trailer court's manager also sent a letter to every resident at 1700 Cooley Street: “Dear Residents: According to state law, pets, including cats, are not allowed to run freely in the park. They are to be under control of the owner at all times. Please get your animals under control. If you don't, they are going to get caught and taken to animal control.”
On Monday, Caras Property, Missoula Animal Control and health department officials reached an agreement during a meeting, Therriault said.
Animal control trapped 17 cats living inside a vacant trailer, Franceschina said, and will attempt to trap another group of animals that are not pets. The wild animals are unadoptable, Franceschina said, and will be euthanized.
“We are going to do one more trap. After that, the property management will hire a private company to trap the cats,” he said, adding that it has never been Animal Control's responsibility to trap animals on private property.
“This is not going to be something that we'll be doing all the time,” Franceschina said. “We don't do this as course. We don't have the man power. We don't normally trap on private property.”
Therriault said she felt good about the meeting on Monday, and said it gets complicated when residents' pets are mixed in with a feral cat population.
“The property management company is definitely cooperating, and we all want to get any feral cat situation under control. Management is reviewing policies, looking at leases and communicating with residents about what is allowed in terms of pets,” she said.
The feral cats will be killed, and some of them checked to ensure none are carriers of rabies.
Missoula City-County Health Department officials said all of Missoula's more than 100 trailer parks have problems with feral and loose cats.
There has only been one rabid cat incident in the past five years, Franceschina said, and it occurred at Hollywood. No human has ever contracted the disease in Missoula.
“It's a slim possibility that (Bristow) had rabies, but nevertheless it does exist,” he said. “And you have to take precautions because no one survives rabies. We've been fortunate here that we've never had one.”
One person did contract rabies from a bat in Ravalli County, he said.
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Jennifer Ryan wrote on Sep 23, 2008 3:30 PM:
Thank you,
Jennifer Ryan "