Importance of Rabies Vaccines
In the United States vaccinations for dogs and cats are common. This makes it easy to forget the reason why we vaccinate in the first place. Vaccines for pets were created in response to past outbreaks and epidemics that killed thousands of animals. These outbreaks are far less common now because of widespread vaccination programs. However, in developing countries and shelters everywhere, you can see the negative effects of not vaccinating. Pets are euthanized every day because of preventable illnesses.
While parvovirus and distemper infections are common in developing nations, the disease causing the most problems worldwide is rabies. Worldwide, rabies kills approximately 55,000 people every year. In areas where animals are not typically vaccinated for rabies, the disease can quickly spread from animals to people and escalate into a full blown outbreak.
The best way to prevent rabies outbreaks is by vaccinating a large enough portion of the animal’s population in order to create what is referred to as “herd immunity”. Herd immunity creates a level of resistance sufficient enough to prevent the virus from causing an outbreak. While individual animals might become sporadically infected, the overall number of animals infected remains low.
In the United States, if your pet remains unvaccinated and does not catch the disease it doesn’t mean that the practice of not vaccinating is safe. It only means that your pet is lucky enough to live in a country where the level of illness is relatively low because many other pets are vaccinated. However, if your pet ends up in a shelter situation or other location with a large number of unvaccinated animals, the likelihood of your pet becoming sick is extremely high. Worse still, this type of situation increases the likelihood of an outbreak in the United States. In fact, outbreaks of rabies in all parts of the world can be found with a quick Google search.
Claws N Paws Day Spa requires proof of vaccination before grooming. This is to protect our groomers and clients from preventable diseases. For more information, or to schedule your next grooming appointment, please call 714-962-1005.
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