Do you really have to vaccinate your outdoor pets for rabies every year?

This is a question that many cat and dog owners often ask their self, while reading the annual card they get in the mail from their money hungry, oops, I mean concerned veterinarians.

Oh, it's that time again... It's only been a year, and you want me to vaccinate my pets for rabies, again? The veterinarians/animal doctors make it seem almost mandatory that my pets get administered rabies vaccinations along with other immunizations on a regular basis. Do they just want my money or does my pets really need all these annual injections of toxic liquid into their bodies? Yep, I'm sure many of you have asked those questions along with many more, when taking your dogs, cats, etc., to the Vet once a year.

I'm not really sure about State Laws when it comes to rabies vaccinations, but I know that if you have a dog running loose, for example, that bites somebody and it hasn't been vaccinated for rabies lately, that you may very well be up shit creek without a paddle - if ya know what I mean.
If you're curious about State Laws concerning rabies shots, you may need to do a web search about it or try to make some sense out of this page, here: http://www.dogs4dogs.com/rabies-laws [Link is no longer active]

Now, if you would like to read something a lot clearer and easier to understand that speaks about laws concerning rabies shots, visit the highly recommended web page "The Big Scam - Rabies Vaccination" @ http://www.thewholedog.org/artrabies.html [Link is no longer active]

Personally, I think that if you have roaming pets (mainly dogs) that get out in the woods and especially if they venture out into the wilderness at night on a regular basis, that they should be vaccinated for rabies - at least a couple times during their life. I say this mainly for the ones who have kids that play with them a lot or if you play fight with your animals and get exposed to their saliva from time to time - whether it is from bites, licks, and so on. But that doesn't answer the question as to whether or not you should do this every year. My opinion: I don't think so! It sounds more like a money-making scam, if ya ask me!

Many people believe that you should perform vaccinations and immunization shots yearly, while many others believe that these preventative shots cause more harm than good and definitely shouldn't be given to animals in poor health or during a weakened state. Plus, why waste your money on stuff that is unnecessary?
By what I have read from multiple sources, after filtering out the baloney and the hype, if you have pets that are at risk for contracting rabies, getting them vaccinated every 3 years should be often enough, and definitely not more than every other year - which to me, still sounds too often. It is your animals and your money, so you make the call. I can't be responsible for providing a correct answer to this question, as the data is just too damn conflicting to be absolutely certain.

Now, outside of rabies, you may also be wondering about how often you should get your pets immunization shots. I'm not an expert over this subject matter, so I'll just provide a link that covers this particular topic, here: http://www.vaccinationnews.com/DailyNews/May2002/ShouldVaxDogThisYear.htm [Link is no longer active]

All I know is, I've had a roaming, wild dog for almost 14 years and it has only had one round of immunization shots in her life. However, I did fall for the hype the first several years and was giving it annual rabies shots for about 9 of those years. The last 2.5 years, my dog that has lived a very long life of nearly 14 years, has not received another vaccination. I've also did something else that most "pet experts" say is wrong, which is feed her bones and random table scraps all her life - especially chicken bones. My dog likes real food, not fortified cardboard, and she has lived a very healthy life -regardless of me going against the supposed "pet experts" advice.

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