I watched a documentary on the only known person to survive rabies. Girl who got bit by a bat- small wound that just bled a tiny bit. Not worth thinking about- until she started getting sick weeks later. Scarey- there were several clips of people in various stages of rabies. Thousands and thousands of people a year die from rabies around the world. Not something I'd want to fool around with. Depending on the location of the bite, it may be too late within hours.

By the way- not sure about where you are- but where I was, a dog not vaccinated for rabies in a rabies county can be seized. It's considered a human health risk and falls under health and safety codes not animal control codes. Exigent circumstances can even come into play- no warrant needed.

dennis: there's a bit of a difference between drinking from an aluminum can and having aluminum injected into your body.

amber: i honestly had no idea that mercury was used in vaccines, but i do remember reading about what it does to the neuro system. scary.

i personally like to think my immune system's strengthened by years of eating stuff i dropped on the floors of fast food restaraunts.

 Quote:

Unless 1) the virus in question is extremely dangerous and lethal and 2) the disease is highly prevalent and there is a great risk of contracting it, it's stupid and dangerous to vaccinate against it.

This is a succint creed without being myopic and simplistic.

At least a random contraction of Distemper is free. I PAID for my symptoms. Oh, and then I paid to treat the symptoms.

 Quote: dennis jones

Again, at a club where accidents can happen and the dogs are sharing equipment and the the field I would insist the same way I would insist that your children are UTD on thier vacs before attending school with mine

Sorry Dennis, but I have to give you a reality check here. Having 4 GSDs doesn't give you any big insight into this topic. You can certainly have an opinion but the "facts" you post on here are ridiculous.

first of all, if your dogs and kids are vaccinated, and you truly believe that vaccines guarantee protection (which they don't) then you should not worry at all about my unvaccinated dogs and kid. (as Yuko posted previously)

If I knew then what I know now, I would NOT have vaccinated my son at all. Yep, your heard me. I have done years of research on my own, both for and against vaccines and made my decisions from the data out there.

I would guess I have a bit more experience with dog training clubs than you do (having been on the board of an AKC obedience club and a founding member of 2 schutzhund clubs, etc) and if anyone told me to provide proof of vaccines to train there I would tell them to take a hike. I wouldn't train there.

If you want to inject stuff into your animals and kids, that's your business but I won't let a group of people (who are likely very misinformed) dictate health decisions for me and my family and dogs.

BTW Dennis I also lived in Africa in the 1960s. You should see my vaccination records... my poor parents had no choice but to give me multiple vaccinations of all kinds of crap, my dad worked for the state department and we lived in Rabat. I had a year of unexplained fevers, of 104 or higher starting after those vaccines. Who knows what permanent damage has been done? I do know that they were doing the best they knew how, as I expect you are doing with your dogs and kids.

when you know better, you do better....

Thanks Cindy, a re think by the medical research types may be in order to improve quailty of vacs and determine real needs. I'm afraid of being wrong and have to treat a dog because a rabid fox or raccoon gets into our yard. We've had reports of rabid animals in this area. The need for other vacs, I don't know.