Healthy Paws Pet Insurance is worried about a drop in the number of dogs receiving vaccinations.
Healthy Paws Pet Insurance is concerned about animal health care as anti-vaxxers choose not to vaccinate their pets. The insurer has noted a reduction in the number of dogs receiving their basic vaccinations, including rabies vaccine shots.
Anti-vaccination trends have been spreading in both human and veterinary health care.
According to the Center for Disease Control, anti-vaxxers are currently the leading threat to global health. The result of this sentiment in human health care is already becoming rapidly apparent as diseases that used to be rare and that have steadily declined for decades – such as measles – are causing outbreaks again.
Healthy Paws Pet Insurance has been watching this threat as it makes its way into pet health care, too. Anti-vaxxers aren’t just opposed to vaccinations among their human family members. The insurer has been watching the number of vaccinated dogs dropping, too. More dogs aren’t receiving even the basic vaccinations as a part of their regular veterinary care.
The insurer is concerned that as anti-vaxxers stop vaccinating their pets, illnesses will rise unnecessarily.
The American Veterinary Medical Association is firmly in favor of the use of vaccinations for pet health care. “Experts agree that widespread use of vaccinations within the last century has prevented death and disease in millions of animals. Vaccinations protect your pet from highly contagious and deadly diseases and improve your pet’s overall quality of life,” said Rob Jackson, co-founder and CEO of Healthy Paws, as quoted by PEOPLE magazine.
Healthy Paws has seen core vaccinations becoming less popular. According to the ASPCA, those core vaccinations “are considered vital to all pets based on risk of exposure, severity of disease or transmissibility to humans.”
Jackson went on to explain how Healthy Pets and the veterinarians with whom they do business, believe that anti-vaxxers are negatively impacting animal health. This could place dogs exposed to preventable illnesses at risk of contraction. The insurer pointed specifically to the risk of diseases and infection that can be effectively prevented with basic vaccination, such as parvovirus, rabies, distemper and 
adenovirus-2. In fact, Healthy Paws insurance claims show that treatment for these conditions is becoming more common as a result of unvaccinated pets.
