Published January 2009 and reproduced with kind courtesy of Dogs Today Magazine

You are about to read the BEST! article ever on VACCINE DAMAGE in DOGS. We have the essential information that YOU need to KNOW to SAVE DOGS LIVES. Catherine O’Driscoll is the founder of Canine Health Concern, which spearheads research and education by and for dog lovers to promote canine good health. The author of What Vets Don’t Tell You About Vaccines and Shock to the System, she has helped to popularise natural feeding and complementary healthcare options among dog lovers.

The majority of people are ‘codependents’ in psycho- speak. Trusting souls, they don’t like to question authority and don’t value their own instincts. Catherine O’Driscoll, a campaigner against vaccines, believes they should...

When I started reporting vaccine reactions back in 1994, a limited amount of research was available. It isn’t limited anymore. 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 percent place in them.

When the damage is done...

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 an antisocial personality disorder, also known as psychopaths. Psychopaths, due to their genes or their early childhood environment, show a 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 more than 90 percent 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 became poorly and I could have prevented it through a simple yearly injection.” Afraid to say “no” This woman is speaking from fear. Fear makes it 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 got worse, I would still vaccinate.”

This woman is also speaking from fear, sponsored by a lie. The tragedy is that, as she has 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 needs annual shots. Here is a statement of truth: once immune, dogs are immune to a 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 that 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 titre (blood) tests are safer than revaccination. Cause and effect.

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 percent 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 anymore. 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 said, “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 leapt, which he neither recommends nor advocates - even in lepto-endemic areas.

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 in 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 by 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 died 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 percent 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 acknowledged vaccine reaction) caused 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 11-year-old dog (the love of my life!) to have his boosters yesterday. Just minutes after leaving the vet, 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 euthanased 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 anymore. 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 dog's place in them.

It is a sad fact that we live in a world where we can’t trust apparently respectable business people and healthcare providers to put our dog's health first. We need to wise up - our dogs depend on us.

Published January 2009 and reproduced with kind courtesy of Dogs Today Magazine

Illustrations by Kevin Brockbank