TNR - IS IT SPREADING MENTAL ILLNESS AS WELL AS DISEASES?

We all realize that cats carry several diseases. Now recent studies show a link to mental illness. TNR, the movement that re-abandons cats, neglects the public safety issue, denies it even against the face of science.

http://www.iflscience.com/health-and-medicine/cat-parasite-linked-development-mental-illness-owners

"This study, published in the journal Schizophrenia Research, examines whether the ownership of a cat during childhood is more common in families with members who went on to develop mental health disorders later on in life. The researchers state that two earlier studies came to this conclusion and, using an extensive survey, attempted to replicate the finding. They were successful, reinforcing the link between early cat ownership and later-life schizophrenia and other serious mental illnesses."

http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/284681.php

"A fifth of schizophrenia cases 'may be attributable to T. gondii infection'"

"Schizophrenia is one of the leading causes of disability in the US, affecting more than 3.5 million people."

A few years ago in Los Angeles County, children in a daycare center were becoming ill. The illnesses were traced to a nearby feral cat colony.  

http://knabe.com/2008/10/23/wild-cats-to-be-removed-from-rancho-los-amigos-after-increased-public-health-concerns/#.VB2d80pX-uY

Due to the large number of feral cats on the campus, estimated at 150 – 200, the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health (DPH) has determined that the current conditions pose a public health risk. Evidence of fleas, flies, and feces associated with the cats has been observed throughout the campus, including adjacent to a child day care center, a County Crime Laboratory, and a County Public Health Laboratory. Unmanaged colonies of feral cats could potentially pass on organisms related to human disease such as rabies, plague, endemic typhus, toxoplasmosis, and cat-scratch disease. These pathogens can be transmitted via bite, scratch, fleas, and exposure to fecal matter.

Beachgoers in Miami became infected with hookworms, again traced to a feral cat colony nearby. 

"The thought to know that your child has a living larva in his skin is horrible," she told Miami Herald news partner WFOR-Ch. 4.

A girl in Northern CA contracted rabies from a feral cat. 

The public health investigation identified contact with free-roaming, unvaccinated cats at the patient's school as a possible source of infection.

http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/mm6104a1.htm

With all of this, why are we allowing this movement to jeopardize the safety and well being of our citizens? TNR has evolved into nothing more than outside hoarding, it is rarely done properly. Food stations attract more than cats, attracting wildlife, attracting owned cats, luring them from their homes. TNR is not the way to help cats, it is the ultimate cruelty to re-abandon cats. 

This new research probably explains the actions of many in the humane community who shouldn't be there.