This is an incredibly alarming situation for the neighborhood. Polk County Animal Control and the Sheriff’s Office just confirmed the details of this aggressive multi-person attack in the Glen Road area of North Lakeland.
The state laboratory in Tampa officially confirmed the cat was positive for rabies on June 12, 2026. Because the rabies virus has a near 100% fatality rate in humans and mammals once symptoms appear, health officials are treating this with extreme urgency.
Here is exactly what happened, who was affected, and the crucial safety steps being taken right now.
The Incident Timeline & Victims
The unprovoked attacks took place during the first week of June. The stray, unvaccinated cat was part of a larger roaming population being actively fed and named by a resident.
The cat attacked five people and one pet completely unprovoked:
- 29-Year-Old Man: Bitten on the legs while at the feeder’s home.
- 33-Year-Old Woman: Attacked at a neighboring home. The cat jumped into her lap and bit her finger, then chased her and attacked her legs when she tried to wash the wound with a hose. She had to use a baseball bat to defend herself.
- 16-Year-Old Girl: Bitten on the knee when she attempted to play with the cat.
- 9-Year-Old Girl: Approached and bitten on the leg while outside her home.
- 13-Year-Old Boy: Attacked on his legs when the cat ran across the street as he was taking out the trash.
- 4-Month-Old Puppy: Attacked outside by the cat before a neighbor noticed and intervened.
How the Cat Was Found
Animal Control officers deployed multiple traps to capture the diseased animal. While they initially trapped 10 other stray cats, they could not find the attacker. On June 11, a Glen Road resident reported a foul odor under their home. Officers retrieved the deceased cat from beneath the structure and sent it to the state lab for immediate testing.
Local Penalties and Quarantine
The resident who was feeding the free-roaming cats has been cited by Polk County Animal Control for:
- Allowing cats to roam at large
- Failing to vaccinate the animal against rabies
- Negligence leading to injury of a person
Additionally, the resident’s personal dog has been placed under strict quarantine due to direct exposure to the rabid cat.
⚠️ Critical Public Health Warning
If you or anyone you know lives in the North Lakeland/Glen Road area and believes they or their pets had physical contact with a stray cat in early June, seek immediate medical attention or contact a veterinarian. Post-exposure prophylaxis (PEP) is highly effective, but it must be administered before symptoms develop.
What to Do Next
Animal Control is continuing to set traps in the neighborhood to mitigate the stray and feral overpopulation. The Polk County Sheriff’s Office strongly urges residents not to feed or interact with free-roaming animals unless they are definitively known to be vaccinated and sterilized. If you choose to care for an at-large cat, local authorities advise humanely trapping it to get it spayed/neutered, microchipped, and vaccinated against deadly pathogens like rabies.