The anti-vaxxer movement may be encompassing the pet world and putting cats and dogs at risk, according to one veterinarian.
鈥淚t鈥檚 really paralleling what we see in humans,鈥� Rebecca Greenstein, a vet in Kleinburg, Ont., said Friday on CTV鈥檚 Your Morning, referring to the 鈥渁nti-vaccination鈥� ideology that vaccines are harmful or unnecessary.
As measles outbreaks surge around the world 鈥� more than 100,000 cases have been reported in 2019, marking a 300 per cent increase from last year 鈥� Greenstein isn鈥檛 surprised by numbers in the pet world. According to a recent report, some 25 per cent of dog owners and 35 per cent of cat owners in the U.K. said their pets were not given a 鈥溾�� when they were young.
鈥淚f you鈥檙e the sort of parent who doesn鈥檛 want to give your child the MMR series, it wouldn鈥檛 necessarily surprise me that you wouldn鈥檛 want to give a Lepto vaccine to your dog,鈥� she said. Leptospirosis (lepto) is a deadly spread through water, soil or food contaminated by urine from infected animals, and some experts say it has been in parts of Canada, including Ontario.
According to the report from People鈥檚 Dispensary for Sick Animals (PDSA), among the chief reasons for not vaccinating the dogs and cats were cost and the belief that the vaccines were 鈥渘ot necessary.鈥� A more troubling anti-vaccination motive came to light in 2018, when the PDSA said vaccination numbers were even worse: the fear of 鈥渃anine autism.鈥� In April that year, the U.K.鈥檚 leading veterinary body released a statement debunking the belief that dogs could develop autism from vaccines, which is also an unfounded concern among people opposed to vaccines for humans.
鈥淭here is currently to indicate autism in dogs or a link between vaccination and autism,鈥� wrote Gudrun Ravetz, senior vice president of the British Veterinary Association. 鈥淰accinations save lives and are an important tool in keeping our pets healthy. All medicines have potential side effects but in the case of vaccines, these are rare and the benefits of vaccination in protecting against disease far outweigh the potential for an adverse reaction.鈥�
The statement was in response to a tweet by ITV talk show , which put a call-out to pet owners who believe a vaccine gave the animal autism.
Greenstein believes that the diseases vaccinated against can seem 鈥渁bstract鈥� to pet owners. 鈥淭he same way that mumps are very abstract if you鈥檝e never seen them before,鈥� she said. 鈥淭he reason that we don鈥檛 see a lot of these diseases is because we were so effective at eradicating them. Now that we鈥檙e doing it less, there鈥檚 a resurgence and it鈥檚 becoming more real.鈥�
