. . . make sure he/she hasn’t bitten anyone in the last 10 days. If your dog or cat has bitten someone, he/she cannot be euthanized for 10 days, by law. This is to make sure that the rabies virus is not present. If your pet has rabies, neurological symptoms will show up within 10 days. Rabies is fatal and transmitted through bites and scratches, so that’s why it’s so important to make sure it wasn’t transmitted to a human. If your pet has bitten somebody and you need to wait 10 days, keep everybody safe! This may mean keeping the pet in a separate room or having a leash on him in the home, for example.