I had no idea a rabies sub existed and this is great.

I live in an emerging country (Brazil) where basically nothing matters and authorities won’t do anything unless 1) someone is dying 2) someone is dead or 3) it went on the news, became a scandal and the population is putting pressure.

The high school I went to is in the middle of the woods in a rural area and there’s a bat colony surrounding it. I had night time classes there and I could see and hear the bats flying in the surroundings, they’re probably insectivore because during warm nights you could see them roaming the lights and I think they were hunting for insects that are attracted by light.

This is all no problem until the fact that this school also shelters stray cats, they roam freely even inside classrooms (that’s not an unusual thing in Brazilian public schools and universities) and students pick them up and pet them, exposing themselves to bites, scratches or licks. I asked the janitor (he’s the one feeding and giving water to the cats) about them being vaccinated and he said they aren’t, that they’re stray and just “free to go wherever they want”, that they’re not really school’s responsibility. It’s a sanitary disaster about to happen because cats hunt and have a predatory behavior so it’s a matter of time until they get in contact with an infected bat and even worse, a student could be exposed. Cases like this have been reported in my city. Bat rabies, bat rabies in cats and dogs. The clowder gets bigger each time that goes by, the stray cats are probably attracted to the cat food they’re given.

Talking to the principal isn’t an option because as I said, in this country everything is taken as a joke and “there are more serious stuff to worry about” and I’d come off as the “crazy lady” (the school staff knows me because I studied there even as an adult, taking a technician course). Would I be an AH if I tried to reach local animal rescue organizations and maybe even the authorities in my city (probably also useless)? Or am I exaggerating?