When Fluffy catches the bird flu
Wired.com
June 26, 2006

As medical research links house pets to SARS and bird flu, public health officials have something new to worry about: the risk that poodles and parakeets will need to be quarantined during an outbreak. The worst-case scenario? A runaway epidemic that can only be stopped by dispatching pets to that big animal shelter in the sky.

During Toronto's SARS outbreak in 2003, cats were ignored because health officials "had bigger things on their minds," said Dr. Scott Weese, a veterinarian and associate professor at the University of Guelph in Ontario. "But we need to think about it. What if someone had SARS in their household and infected their cat, and their cat went outside and infected feral cats? SARS would still be in Toronto, or there would be no cats in Toronto."

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