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You
may have studied canine behaviour in order to understand why
dogs
do what they do, and how their behaviour can be
modified. I wonder if
you've studied human behaviour, as I
have, to understand why people
treat their dogs so badly,
and how they can be encouraged to look
after them
better?
Dog owners come from all walks of life. At one
end of the scale are
those who like to be in control.
These include people with antisocial
personality disorder,
also known as psychopaths. Psychopaths, due to
their genes
or their early childhood environment, show callous
disregard
for the rights and feelings of others. They are the
people
most likely to physically abuse animals (and other
humans).
Psychopaths are usually highly intelligent. They
understand others
well, but they don't care about them.
They can be manipulative and
dishonest, exploiting others
for personal gain. Although you may
assume that
psychopaths are the crazed serial killers we hear about
in
the news, they're actually represented in all walks of life,
and
particularly at the top of the business world. Many of
our captains
of industry are psychopaths.
Narcissists
are similar to psychopaths. They are egotists with a
sense
of superiority and a lack of empathy. Others don't
matter,
they're simply a means to an end. Narcissists
exploit others whose
needs they feel to be less important.
Many top business people are
narcissists.
The vast
majority of society sits at the other end of the
scale.
They're the followers, named 'codependent' in
psycho-speak.
Codependents are naturally amenable to
control. It's estimated that
over 90% of people in our
society are codependent to a degree.
Codependent people
have been taught, as children, not to trust their
own
thoughts or feelings. They lack self esteem and long to
be
regarded favourably. They believe that those in
authority know better
than them. Very few people are
therefore able to work out what's true
and what isn't,
because the people who seek power are pulling strings
for
their own ends. I'm not saying this as a cynic, but as
someone
who has studied what is officially known about
human behaviour.
The end result is that we harm our dogs
accidentally, because we've
been manipulated by
individuals and corporations into believing a
pack of
lies. The lie that most dog owners currently believe,
and
which is causing horrendous harm, is that dogs need to
be vaccinated
every year. This is just not true.
A
woman on an Internet discussion group said recently: "I
vaccinate
my dogs yearly. I'd never forgive myself if they
become poorly and I
could have prevented it through a
simple yearly injection."
This woman is speaking from
fear. Fear makes it's easy to manipulate
people into
believing that annual shots are necessary when they are
not.
Another
woman replied: "That's exactly how I feel. I do
worry,
though, as Mollie has a small reaction after her
boosters every year,
but unless it was to get worse, I
would still vaccinate."
This woman is also speaking
from fear, sponsored by a lie. The
tragedy is that, having
already shown reactions to vaccines, the next
unnecessary
vaccine could kill her dog.
A
third woman said: "Susie gets annual boosters. Ollie
doesn't get
any more boosters since becoming very ill
after one. He seems to have
a problem with his immune
system, of unknown cause, that rears up
sometimes."
If
the vet were knowledgeable and honest, he would have told
Ollie's
owner that vaccines can cause immune-mediated
diseases. Vaccines
probably made Ollie ill in the first
place, and neither he nor Susie
need annual shots.
Here
is a statement of truth: once immune, dogs are immune
against
viral disease for years or life. The study group
set up by the WSAVA
(World Small Animal Veterinary
Association) on vaccines has come up
With global
guidelines which categorically state that dogs and
cats
should NOT be vaccinated at more than three yearly
intervals, and
then only for core vaccines - distemper,
parvovirus and adenovirus.
Core vaccines do not
include Leptospirosis, which the WSAVA
acknowledges as
causing more adverse reactions than other
vaccines.
Importantly, the WSAVA acknowledges that
vaccines can be harmful, and
titer (blood) tests are safer
than revaccination.
I constantly receive emails from
people whose dogs have been harmed
by vaccines. Edward
McKenzie-Clark stated: "Last week, at the request
of
the new owner, I had a puppy I bred vaccinated. The puppy
went
downhill overnight and is now seriously ill. The vet
is telling me
that this puppy's condition and the
vaccination are coincidences. The
puppy is going into
kidney failure caused by either leptospirosis (in
the
vaccine) or drinking anti-freeze (impossible) . Can there be
a
connection between the vaccine and the puppy's
health?"
If this man had given this puppy heroin, his
vet would be in no doubt
as to cause and effect. It's
amazing how they don't connect the dots.
In fact, a study
conducted by Purdue University found that
vaccinated, but
not unvaccinated, dogs developed auto-antibodies to a
wide
range of their own biochemicals. One of these was laminin,
which
coats kidney cells. Vaccinated dogs were attacking
their own kidneys.
Vaccines can also cause the disease
you're attempting to prevent. In
the Canine Health Concern
vaccine survey, 100% of dogs with
leptospirosis contracted
it just after being vaccinated against it.
Leptospirosis,
of course, attacks the kidneys - and the puppy had
severe
kidney damage.
Edward wrote again. "I had to put
Hamish to sleep on Sunday. He
deteriorated rapidly over
the weekend and I decided I couldn't allow
him to go
through any more. There are a lot of 'if only we did
this'
days. My other half says I'm too hard on myself and
perhaps I can be
but it's very hard to put out of my mind
what that poor baby had to
go through."
A few
days later, Edward wrote: "The pharmaceutical company
have said
they will pay for an autopsy. I've said if you
pick up the rest of
the £300 bill. They refused so
I'm refusing to let them have the
autopsy done. I asked
why are you so keen on an autopsy when you
claim it wasn't
your vaccine? No answer! I stopped vaccinating in
1990
after a similar incident and this was only done at the
new
owner's request so NEVER again will a vaccine come
near my dogs."
I shared Edward's story with Dr
Patricia Jordan, a vet who has done a
great deal of
research into the vaccine issue. She added these
comments:
"Kidney failure is a common sequel to vaccination.
The
basement membrane is susceptible to damage from a
clogging that
results as the immune complexes are drained
via the lymphatics. The
kidney is a big part of the
lymphatic system. The body tries to clear
the toxins in
the vaccines and there is damage done in this
clearing
mechanism.
"Lepto is a very adverse
event associated vaccine and the damndest
thing is that
lepto vaccines simply do not work. Dr Ron Schultz
(the
world's foremost independent authority on canine
vaccines) hates to
see them in with anything else and, in
puppies, advises that they are
completely finished with
the viral inoculations before getting a
vaccine against
Lepto, which he neither recommends nor advocates -
even in
Lepto endemic areas.
"I have seen older dogs go
into kidney failure within two days of
receiving a Lepto
vaccine."
Many dog lovers, I suspect, have
difficulty in understanding the
science surrounding
vaccination, so they'd rather trust the 'experts'
than
struggle to understand. Dr Jordan sent me one of her
diary
notes, which isn't technical in the least. Perhaps
this will have
meaning for you?
"What a
depressing day today. I had to kill a patient who
was
vaccinated every year, fed crappy food, and was so
immune exhausted
that he had everything wrong - coccidia,
yeast overgrowth, cancer. I
took pictures of his poor
wracked body. I only had about a month to
try to reverse
his condition. It was insurmountable due to the years
of
visits to the vet and resulting complete adrenal exhaustion
and
immunosuppression. He was just spent.
"The day
got worse. I heard barking in the reception and found a
tiny
eight pound terrorist barking at a tall noble
greyhound. The tall dog
was looking desperate and his
sides were heaving. I went back to
finish the patient I
was with. By the time I had finished, I'd missed
the next
patient and the owner of the practice had him.
"I was
able to walk by the room for another reason and was
very
concerned to see vaccines laid out in the room - with
the dog who
looked like he couldn't breathe. I have ranted
and raved against
vaccines - the over-use and the fact
that every single day there is
malpractice committed with
the administration of this danger to sick
and geriatric
animals. Anyway, the dog was shot up with vaccines.
"After
lunch, I returned to see two of the kennel workers
carrying
that dog's dead body back to the freezer for
burial. He had gone home
and died. The owner was very
upset. Apparently, he wasn't expecting
to have vaccinated
his pet and his pet die shortly thereafter.
"I looked
at the record. The dog had been a cardiac patient for
a
while, with terrible heart murmurs. That was why he was
so concerned
about the barking terrier, if only eight
pounds. The dog could hardly
get around, so why was he
administered an eight way MLV vaccine?
"There appears
to be very little compassion in this field. Very
little
honesty and integrity for the patient of the client. I
will
get blasted by most vets reading this, but the
situation is true.
It's a desperate situation."
I
agree with Dr Jordan. The situation is desperate. Those
in
authority don't appear to care, and the pet owners seem
unable to get
out of the mode of following.
Alice
Hughes wrote to me: "Please help. Our pup is six years
old and
has suffered terribly from arthritis. For three
weeks she lost the
use of her back end. One week ago today
she had her booster and
within days she was in distress
and is barely moving around. She is
lethargic and sad.
What can we do? I am not sure if I should take her
to the
vet for advice because when we were there last Saturday,
he
seemed displeased that I turned down the kennel cough
shot (I just
felt uneasy about so many chemicals going
into her and she is never
in a kennel). He is 100% behind
the annual shots and sends me notices
each year, twice. I
feel like I am killing her."
Research shows that
vaccines can cause arthritis. They can also, as a
symptom
of encephalitis (which is an acknowledged vaccine
reaction),
cause paralysis of the rear end.
Elaine
Loydall wrote: "Two weeks ago we did the year's round
of
boosters. Our younger boy who is 16 months had a
massive fit almost
two weeks after the jabs. It was scary.
Do you have a view on this,
and does this mirror other
experiences? "
Yes it does mirror other
experiences. Epilepsy is another symptom of
encephalitis,
an acknowledged vaccine sequel. Millions of pounds have
been
paid out worldwide in compensation to the parents of
epileptic,
vaccine damaged, children.
Brenda
Hopping wrote: "I took my eleven year old dog (the love
of my
life!) to have his boosters yesterday. Just minutes
after leaving the
vets, he collapsed to the ground in an
unconscious state and looked
as if he was dying. The sight
of this was horrendous, just seeing his
legs at awkward
angles and in spasms.
"He did come round, but his
eyes were glazed and he looked completely
disorientated. I
couldn't lift him. I managed to persuade him to his
feet
and he wobbled back to the vets. My dog has a slight
heart
murmur and I feared the worst.
The vet would
not say that it may be something to do with the
vaccination.
He just told me to take my dog home and advised me that
if
it happened again, I should bring my dog back for an ECG.
"In
my mind it is too much of a coincidence that his 'attack'
was
straight after the vaccination. I really think that
the state of
confusion and the lack of knowledge on the
part of the owner is
beneficial to the vet and invariably
to the pharmaceutical
companies."
Proceedings
of the First Veterinary Vaccine Symposium, held in
1997,
advised that geriatric dogs - over eight years of
age - should not be
vaccinated. All vaccine datasheets
state that only healthy animals
should be vaccinated. A
dog with a heart murmur is not healthy. He
should not be
vaccinated: he can die.
To make matters worse, Brenda
was forced to have her cat euthanised
recently as his
vaccine-induced cancer had become so aggressive.
Brenda
says, "His big eyes and lovely face still haunt me and I
am in
tears now as I write to you. To think, if I had been
better informed,
he may still be with me now."
When
I started reporting vaccine reactions back in 1994, a
limited
amount of research was available. It isn't limited
any more. What is
needed now is for vets to stop giving
unnecessary annual shots, to
start upholding the truth,
and for pet owners to become aware of the
truth and honour
the trust their dogs place in them.
It is a sad fact
that we live in a world where we can't trust
apparently
respectable business people and health care
providers to
put our dogs' health first. We need to wise up - our
dogs
depend on
us.
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