TheDogPlace
Publisher
The media's largest advertiser is the pharmaceutical industry so do not expect
to learn about drugs or vaccines in mainstream media. When it comes to
animal vaccines and in particular, the practice-sustaining rabies and yearly
booster shots, your dog will be at great risk.
Prior to the internet, this writer informed dog owners about vaccines through
seminars and magazine columns. When TheDogPlace was launched in 1998 and we were
able to reach millions instead of thousands, we published
Project: Vaccines after which, this editor received thinly veiled threats
from the pharmaceutical companies, including suggestions that criticism of
veterinary products could shorten a writer’s career.
Interesting. We decided to call their bluff. Heady with success,
TheDogPlace then launched
Project: Inserts in veterinary medicine prescriptions. When Pfizer announced
new “prescription inserts policies” within two weeks after we published
Project: Inserts, we recorded that they had quoted word-for-word our
webmaster's introduction to that project!
Joined and linked-to by other websites, we continued to report vaccine
information until in 2006, the veterinary associations (AAHA & AVMA) capitulated
by issuing a release defining "Core Vaccines."
CORE & NON-CORE VACCINES
To make it appear that there was never a cover-up, they saved face by pretending
it was voluntary and had only been a matter of semantics all along. Sure,
like the difference between protecting canine health or protecting the financial
health of the pharmaceutical companies and veterinary practices?
Philip Mansfield, DVM an Associate Professor at the highly prestigious College
of Veterinary Medicine at Auburn (Alabama) University described vaccines as
being of two types: core and non-core. Core vaccines are vital in the prevention
of parvo, distemper, and rabies. Notably, rabies is rarely diagnosed in domestic
animals but rabies vaccine is necessary to protect the human population from the
risk of transmission from wild animal to family pet to family member.
The outspoken veterinarian mentions that core vaccines may provide long immunity
(like polio, diphtheria and other childhood shots) and that studies are being
conducted to determine how frequently we should re-vaccinate adult dogs. Note,
that was in 2001.
NON-CORE VACCINES DEFINED
Non-core vaccines are those that in my opinion, are ineffective, unnecessary, or
considered not worth the risk to the animal or the veterinary practice.
Among non-core vaccines are leptospira, corona, giardia, bordetella,
parainfluenza, and Lyme disease. A side note on Lyme disease; one
pharmaceutical giant accused another of having the Lyme vaccine on the shelf
before the disease had been diagnosed in the canine.
Most vets admit that corona virus vaccine is of no value in older pups. Lepto
often causes adverse reactions so most breeders don’t use it but owners don’t
know that and most vets DO use it in combo shots. In over 40 years of active
exhibiting, we never had a dog with kennel cough, never gave bordetella vaccine,
and always advised our owners to skip it. My personal observation is that dogs
that have had the vaccine develop kennel cough. Lyme disease
vaccine is unnecessary because it doesn’t always protect the dog and antibiotic
treatment is effective if properly diagnosed. Which it may not be, not by the
vet that gave the Lyme disease vaccination...
VACCINATION LIABILITY?
Think about this. In both human and veterinary medicine, it is vet, doctor, or
pharmaceutical company whose diagnostic opinion is considered "expert."
Unfortunately animals can't talk or there would be a lot more lawsuits.
When a dog develops the disease for which he was vaccinated, we’re told it was
because of that timeless window when his mother’s immunity wore off or that it
was because we gave our own shots and don’t know how, or that it is the dog’s
immune system is weak. Most vets can’t explain what is wrong with the dog’s
immune system in the first place so vaccine breakthroughs are even blamed on
genetics which means, of course, the breeder is to blame. By now, the
owner is confused, frightened, and forgetting who gave the shot that "didn’t
work." Its like getting a "cold"
or a "mild case" of the flu after getting a flu shot.
Titer tests are now being developed to measure distemper and parvo antibody.
That is good but let’s face it, most owners would as soon vaccinate as pay for
the tests. Such tests are currently expensive and cost isn’t likely to go down
since demand would have to offset the lost vaccination income. What a tangled
web we do weave.
Shot in the foot is the way this writer would characterize the veterinary
professionals who refused to do their own research, relying instead on drug
salesmen and the pharmaceutical marketing strategy. Aren't you glad you don't
have to do that?
Excerpts from SHOWSIGHT MAGAZINE June 2002
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