In this article, we’re going to be talking about a pretty contentious issue: the annual vaccination of personal protection dogs. Not only is annual vaccination unnecessary, but it also causes harm to your family protection dog. Despite what we know (or don’t know) about the risk, this procedure has been seen to be on the rise or Over-Vaccination. Experts have concluded that most dogs will be protected for many years by a vaccine, maybe even as long as a lifetime. Despite numerous confirmations that repeated shots are unnecessary and harmful, vets continue vaccinating the same dog year after year.
Vaccines are risky.
The risks of over-vaccinating your pet are so severe that it can even result in death for your family protection dog.
Despite what your vet might say about the safety of regular vaccination, the fact remains that it can result in serious side effects, even autoimmune diseases, and cancer.
Not only is over-vaccinating a high-risk procedure, but it also doesn’t make your dog more immune from the diseases they’re being vaccinated against. Personal protection dogs only really need a single round of vaccinations when they’re young.
Even with all of this said, about 60 percent of vet clinics will still push for annual vaccinations, basically for the monetary benefit from performing this procedure again and again.
There’s been a trend in the spread of large veterinary clinic chains that have been called “shot shacks” by some who are in the know. As these corporate chains begin to grow at the expense of smaller, independent clinics, the problem of over-vaccination is getting far worse and not better.
It’s completely natural to believe that your vet has your pet’s well-being in mind when they perform these procedures, but the only explanation here is that they have profits in mind over wellbeing. In the following stories, you’ll see what we mean.
Greencross in Australia.
Greencross is a chain of veterinary clinics in Australia. An insider has confirmed that not only is Greencross devouring as many independent clinics as they can, but they’re also training their staff to sell as much as possible, including the annual vaccination of pets.
At first, this chain pushed for vaccination every three years. They then bumped it up to every year by using scare tactics of disease outbreaks. By doing this, they of course neglected the fact that a single vaccination tends to do the trick and that they’re doing more harm than good by over-vaccinating. But again, the priority is money over anything else.
Vaccination Amnesty in the UK.
This practice also goes on in the UK, under a company known as Intervet Ltd. They shamelessly teach vet clinics to make money and generate more sales. As you can imagine, a great number of these sales lie in the over-vaccination of pets.
When the bottom line is respected more than the actual welfare of the pets, this is the natural result. One of the claims is to get “greater owner compliance” which basically means getting pet owners to comply with these dangerous over-vaccination processes.
This program especially targets owners who have pets with “lapsed” vaccines. By lapsed, they mean a break in vaccines of 18 months.
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After joining the program, the owner receives a vaccination at the price of a booster. Indeed, the pet owner thinks that they’re getting a great deal for something that isn’t even necessary in the first place.
While your dog is in the clinic, the staff there will look for other ailments in the same way that car mechanics will look for problems Over-Vaccination with your vehicle. They’ll also try to sell you on dental procedures as well as pest control and de-worming medications.
Bandfield in the U.S.
You no doubt recognize the Banfield name. Perhaps you’ve even taken your protection dog there. You’ll commonly see them conveniently located in PetSmart–convenient because of how much they can get you to spend before even taking your protection dog to the vet.
Just like Greencross, Banfield wants you to take your dog to the vet twice a year so that they can “keep an eye” on your dog’s dental health, parasite control, behavior, nutrition, and vaccinations.
They offer three different types of wellness plans that all offer different services. They also feature a very high-risk schedule of vaccinations.
These plans include a comprehensive physical exam twice every year as well as other services such as deworming, vaccinations, and of course blood and fecal samples. The higher-level plans even include what they call preventative X-rays, even though exposing a dog to harmful X-rays is anything but preventative.
What causes the most concern is their vaccination schedule. They advocate for annual vaccination and, in some cases, advocate for biannual vaccination. With most of the vaccinations for these diseases, the risk of adverse effects is far worse (and more likely) than the disease that these shots are vaccinating against.
Why should we give our dogs the Lyme disease vaccine despite its discontinuation for people due to its dangerous nature? What’s more, 95 percent of dogs who test positive for Lyme disease are asymptomatic and don’t actually have the disease.
