Story by Gabriela Mart\u00ednez of Spotlight PA<\/p>\n
This story was produced by the Berks County bureau of Spotlight PA<\/a>, an independent, nonpartisan newsroom. Sign up for Good Day, Berks, a daily dose of essential local stories at spotlightpa.org\/newsletters\/gooddayberks<\/a>.<\/p>\n READING \u2014 Rabies cases in Berks County have nearly doubled over the past three years, yet residents exposed to the virus may struggle to find answers to basic questions: Which agency handles rabid feral cats? Who shows up when an animal attacks? How can I confirm if the animal that bit me is positive for rabies?<\/p>\n The Pennsylvania Game Commission will assist<\/a> when a wild animal is involved. The system for pets and feral cats is not as straightforward, which is why we compiled this guide.<\/p>\n To trap a feral cat suspected of rabies:<\/p>\n The Animal Rescue League of Berks<\/a>\u00a0provides full animal control services free of charge in six municipalities: Bern Township, City of Reading, Jefferson Township, New Morgan Borough, Upper Bern Township, and Wyomissing Borough.Private companies, including\u00a0Seitz Wildlife<\/a>\u00a0or\u00a0Humane Wildlife Removal<\/a>, provide animal control services at a fee.Groups that work to spay and neuter feral cats \u2014 including\u00a0Berks Community Cats<\/a>,\u00a0Berks Cats in Crisis<\/a>,\u00a0No Nonsense Neutering<\/a>,\u00a0The Nobody\u2019s Cats Foundation<\/a>,\u00a0Fairchild \u201cFeral Friends\u201d Foundation<\/a>, and\u00a0Helping Hands for Animals<\/a>\u00a0\u2014 can help locate resources to humanely trap and test possibly infected cats. You can also borrow traps from\u00a0Humane Pennsylvania<\/a>.<\/p>\n To test a domestic animal showing signs of rabies:<\/p>\n The state\u00a0Department of Agriculture\u2019s lab in Harrisburg<\/a>\u00a0accepts animal carcasses, prepares samples, and tests for rabies free of charge. The specimen must be sealed and properly refrigerated. The lab is open Monday through Friday, 8 a.m. to 4 p.m.The state Department of Agriculture\u2019s Bureau of Animal Health and Diagnostic Services, through its main line at 717-772-2852, can direct people to a veterinarian on-call who can provide information.\u00a0Regional offices can<\/a>\u00a0also have staff available during work hours who can answer questions. The department also publishes an informational\u00a0brochure<\/a>.For people who live outside its coverage area, ARL can euthanize an animal under 20 pounds for $100 and $150 for animals larger than that. It will do specimen prep and testing for $250. However, the decision whether to accept the animal is at their discretion, depending on staff availability.If the animal is alive and in a trap, experts say the best option is to go to your nearest veterinary clinic, where a medical professional can prepare and submit a specimen for testing. Prices for services vary according to each clinic.24-hour animal clinics include\u00a0BluePearl Pet Hospital<\/a>\u00a0in Wyomissing,\u00a0Eastern PA Veterinary Medical Center<\/a>\u00a0in Allentown, and\u00a0Valley Central Veterinary Referral and Emergency Center<\/a>\u00a0in Whitehall Township.<\/p>\n If you or someone else has been bitten or scratched by an animal suspected of rabies:<\/p>\n Wash the wound with soap and water. Seek medical help immediately, and contact the Department of Health at 1-877-PA-HEALTH.<\/p>\n BEFORE YOU GO\u2026 If you learned something from this article, pay it forward and contribute to Spotlight PA at spotlightpa.org\/donate<\/a>. Spotlight PA is funded by foundations and readers like you<\/a> who are committed to accountability journalism that gets results.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Story by Gabriela Mart\u00ednez of Spotlight PA This story was produced by the Berks County bureau of Spotlight…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":67537,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[128,130,129],"class_list":{"0":"post-67536","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-reading","8":"tag-reading-city","9":"tag-reading-city-headlines","10":"tag-reading-city-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67536","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=67536"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67536\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/67537"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=67536"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=67536"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=67536"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}