Since opening her veterinary practice four years ago, Dr. Kelly McGuire has encountered numerous heartbreaking situations. She recalls a dog whose kidneys failed due to leptospirosis, a common bacterial disease spread by rodents. Several of her canine patients also succumbed to severe parvovirus, dying from extreme dehydration and malnutrition, as Dr. McGuire, owner of Wildflower Veterinary Hospital in Brighton, Colorado, explained. In another tragic instance, she had to euthanize a 20-week-old puppy experiencing seizures because rabies couldn’t be ruled out. These were gut-wrenching losses, made worse by the fact that they were entirely preventable. A full course of recommended vaccinations would likely have saved these beloved pets.
For much of her career, vaccinating small animals was a straightforward, everyday task. However, since the Covid-19 pandemic, Dr. McGuire’s interactions with pet owners have shifted dramatically. She now frequently finds herself in lengthy, often contentious debates about vaccine safety and necessity. Some clients have accused her of promoting vaccines purely for financial gain. More disturbingly, an increasing number of pet owners are demanding staggered vaccination schedules or outright refusing vital shots, even for fatal, untreatable diseases like rabies.
An image shows Dallas, a 2-year-old miniature dachshund, calmly receiving leptospirosis and bordetella vaccines at Wildflower Veterinary Hospital in Brighton, Colorado.
“I once had an owner scream and storm out of our clinic because we insisted on rabies vaccinations for her cats,” Dr. McGuire recounted. The owner went so far as to accuse them of attempting to “kill her cats with vaccines.”
In recent years, the anti-vaccine movement has seen a concerning rise across the United States. This surge has been partly driven by the politicization of Covid-19 vaccines and the growing influence of figures like Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., a prominent vaccine critic. As a result, childhood vaccination rates have declined, leading to the reappearance of once-eradicated diseases like measles. Vaccine mandates are also increasingly challenged; last month, Florida declared its intention to eliminate all vaccine requirements, even for schoolchildren.
An accompanying photo shows Dr. Kelly McGuire, owner of Wildflower Veterinary Hospital, whose experiences include being yelled at by an owner for requiring rabies vaccines for cats, an encounter where she was accused of trying to ‘kill her cats with vaccines.’
This reluctance towards vaccines isn’t confined to humans; it’s now deeply affecting veterinary medicine, making pet owners increasingly hesitant to vaccinate their animal companions. “I speak with thousands of veterinarians annually nationwide, and most report encountering this problem,” stated Dr. Richard Ford, an emeritus professor at the North Carolina State University College of Veterinary Medicine and a co-author of national vaccine guidelines for cats and dogs. This trend mirrors the human anti-vaccine movement, and experts worry it could pave a dangerous path, potentially leading to relaxed animal vaccination laws, a drop in pet immunity, and a resurgence of infectious diseases that threaten both animal and human populations.
“Will we see an undoing of rabies vaccination mandates?” questioned Simon Haeder, a health services and policy researcher at the Ohio State University who has investigated veterinary vaccine hesitancy. “We are truly at a critical juncture.”
A Growing Hesitancy
Concrete data on U.S. pet vaccination rates is scarce, yet recent studies indicate a considerable number of owners harbor concerns about vaccinating their animals. A 2023 survey revealed that 52% of pet owners felt uncertainty regarding the safety, effectiveness, or necessity of pet vaccinations. A subsequent study in the following year suggested that 22% of dog owners and 26% of cat owners could be identified as vaccine-hesitant.
Similar to human vaccine hesitancy, this reluctance in pet owners predates the Covid-19 pandemic, fueled by rising distrust in institutions, authority, and the pervasive influence of social media. However, the pandemic significantly amplified anti-vaccine sentiments, further eroding scientific trust and transforming vaccination into a highly politicized and prominent topic, experts noted.
An image shows Dr. McGuire getting ready to administer a bordetella vaccine to Finley, a 9-year-old retriever.
“Public perception of the Covid-19 vaccine has fundamentally altered views on all vaccines, even those for pets,” explained Matt Motta, a Boston University health policy expert researching public attitudes towards both human and animal immunization. Researchers have found clear links; a Brazilian study indicated that pet owners not fully vaccinated against Covid-19 were more inclined to have unvaccinated pets themselves. This crossover isn’t entirely unexpected in a society where pets are often considered full family members. “It’s logical that owners would apply their conclusions about human vaccines to pet vaccines and come up with the same conclusions,” observed Lori Kogan, who researches human-animal interactions at Colorado State University.
Mirroring Human Trends
Veterinary medicine, too, has seen the emergence of anti-vaccine influencers spreading doubt. Some of these fears are propagated by organizations also active in the human anti-vaccine movement, such as Children’s Health Defense, founded by Mr. Kennedy. This group recently published a book claiming “tremendous harm” from annual pet vaccinations.
Indeed, vaccine-hesitant pet owners echo many concerns typical of the human anti-vax movement. They worry about over-vaccination, prefer natural immunity from disease exposure over vaccine-induced protection, and even fear vaccines could cause cognitive or behavioral issues, including conditions akin to autism, in their animals. “The idea of ‘pawtism’ is definitely circulating,” noted Dr. Brennen McKenzie, a California veterinarian and author of the evidence-based veterinary medicine blog, SkeptVet. This concept lacks any scientific foundation. The link between vaccines and autism in humans has been thoroughly disproven, and autism itself is not a recognized diagnosis in other animal species.
A close-up image of a syringe in a vet tech’s hand illustrates that many vaccine boosters are now administered every three years.
However, not all concerns about vaccine safety and frequency are entirely baseless. Earlier versions of the leptospirosis vaccine carried a slightly higher risk of severe allergic reactions compared to other vaccines, particularly in smaller dog breeds. Additionally, vaccinations in cats can, in rare cases, lead to injection-site sarcomas, a form of cancer. Despite these concerns, such serious side effects were always rare. Experts confirm that risks have significantly decreased in recent years thanks to vaccine reformulations and improved vaccination protocols.
Vaccination guidelines have also changed dramatically. What once required annual boosters for many vaccines has shifted as research showed longer-lasting immunity from certain shots. Now, many boosters are given only every three years. “Significant advancements in vaccine practices over the last two decades demonstrate a continuous effort to develop safer, more effective methods,” Dr. McKenzie highlighted.
Experts generally agree that hesitant owners often overestimate vaccine risks while severely underestimating the dangers of infectious diseases. This presents a challenge for veterinarians, much like pediatricians face: the very success of vaccination means many pet owners no longer perceive diseases like rabies and parvovirus as serious threats. The parallels between human and pet anti-vaccine movements are striking. Dr. McGuire is part of a group of veterinarians and pediatricians who meet to share experiences and strategies for addressing this increasing hesitancy. “We often discuss how exhausting it is to have the same conversation repeatedly,” she shared, emphasizing their core mission: “We’re simply trying to save people’s dogs and cats.”
Another image shows Dr. McGuire vaccinating Cousin, a 14-week-old golden retriever, who was prepped with cheese for his shot.
The Real Dangers
A national database for pet vaccination rates in the U.S. doesn’t exist, making it difficult to confirm if rates have declined. “We face a significant data challenge,” explained Dr. Audrey Ruple, a veterinary epidemiologist at Virginia Tech, adding, “we will certainly know once diseases begin to re-emerge.”
A decline in pet vaccination rates poses a threat not just to animals, but to human health too. Several preventable diseases, such as leptospirosis and rabies, are zoonotic—meaning they can pass from pets to people. “Our dogs are often in our beds, and they’re kissing our children’s faces,” noted Dr. Steve Weinrauch, Chief Veterinary Officer at Trupanion, a pet insurance company, highlighting the close bond and shared risk. Historically, before widespread pet vaccination campaigns were introduced in the mid-20th century, bites from rabid dogs were the primary cause of human rabies cases in the U.S.
While most states mandate rabies vaccinations for dogs, not all do, and enforcement varies. With growing vaccine opposition, Dr. Motta fears that politicians might exploit this sentiment by easing or eliminating these crucial public health requirements. “Health policy is inherently dynamic, as we’ve witnessed recently,” Dr. Motta remarked. “It is influenced by political motives and public sentiment, essentially reflecting public opinion.”
Dr. Ford is urging veterinarians to proactively address this challenge. Drawing lessons from human public health, he stresses that simply dismissing vaccine concerns will not make them disappear. “There’s a prevailing attitude among some medical professionals, both human and veterinary, to tell people to ‘just get the vaccine’,” he noted. “Our goal is to persuade veterinarians to seriously engage with and validate these concerns.”
The article concludes with an image of various pet portraits adorning the waiting room of Wildflower Veterinary Hospital, a poignant reminder of the animals at the heart of this debate.