AVMA Says Fear Your Pet and Go to the Vet

This nonsense video is from the American Veterinary Medical Association (AVMA), and once again it is paid for by Fort Dodge Animal Health, a division of Wyeth, which is now owned by Pfizer.

The pitch here is that if you do not take your dog or cat to the vet at least twice a year, you might catch some horrible disease and get sick yourself.

Nice fear mongering!

Of course, it's complete and total bullshit.

I used to rat with my terriers, and my dogs still routinely slide into tick-filled dens, and face every dog-borne zoonotic disease there is, from rabies to Lyme disease, and from roundworm to hookworms. Guess what? I am not going to get sick from my dogs, and neither are you.

There has not been a known case of dog-transmitted rabies in this country in more than 40 years, and leptospirosis is almost unheard of even among people who chase rats with terriers every weekend (and yes I do know such people).

In fact, a Lepto vaccine is more likely to kill your dog from a bad reaction than it is to prevent an infection!

Ticks?

This country is crawling with them, but if you are going to catch Lyme disease, I assure you it will have nothing to do with your dog! Lyme is carried by deer ticks, and is so rare in dog ticks that it was only recenly discovered. As for Lyme, it is easily and cheaply treated with Doxycyline, which you can order without a prescription. Yes, you can dose your dog yourself without a vet visit at all.

Roundworms? They are all around you in the soil, carried there by fox and raccoon, but you are not likely to get them unless you eat dirt, or are very careless while handling raccoon and fox crap.

Do you handle a lot of raccoon and fox scat? More than I do?? I bet not!

The bottom line is that the AVMA and its pharmaceutical company sponsors will say anything to get more people to take their healthy, asymptomatic dogs to the vets twice a year.

They are not above fear-mongering, and they are not above lying.

Go to the vets twice a year if you want to. But be advised that this is an intelligence test, and if you are following the AVMA's advice on this matter, you have failed.

The AVMA is fanning the flames of economic predation.

They are appealing to fear -- trying to trigger a visceral reaction in people who are completely ignorant or who have some sort of mental disorder such as phobia, obsessive compulsive disorder, neurotosis, or hypochondria.

This is evil. And this is who is representing the veterinary trade in America today.

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