Will Falconer, DVM Moderator
You have some good thoughts here, but I don't think rabies is as simple as deciding to never vaccinate for parvo or distemper, or ever vaccinate your children. All of the latter decisions ultimately affect only your animals, kids, or you.
Rabies, being a zoonotic disease, is a bigger can of worms. The state gets, rightly or wrongly, involved when people's actions can cause death to other people.
Agreed, low incidence disease. But if your loved one got rabies because of wildlife biting your dog and your dog biting your loved one (or your neighbor, for that matter), that person dying from rabies might have you re-evaluating your decision.
Proving safety and effectiveness before going to market with a vaccine, now there's a concept! We'd have none, if that were the case. Nor any GMO's, Roundup, or other pesticides. Seems like I wrote about this in a post on the Precautionary Principle. Responsibility is ideally on the heads of those coming to market with a new product to prove it's safe in that scenario. Not holding my breath, in the age we find ourselves.
Thanks for your thoughts!