Turns out the shameful practices that Shayna’s List was created to address are also being perpetrated in the Great White North. From CBCNews.ca (emphasis added):
Many veterinary bills include ‘inappropriate’ costs:
Marketplace reveals that, despite evidence, some vets continue to over-vaccinate pets
By Megan Griffith-Greene, October 4, 2013.
Despite guidelines that recommend vaccinating dogs every three years, many veterinarians continue to push annual vaccinations, a CBC Marketplace investigation reveals.
And when dogs get annual jabs, pet owners may be getting gouged.
“It’s inappropriate and [veterinarians] need to get with the current policies and guidelines,” said Dr. Jean Dodds, a California-based veterinarian and researcher, who is an expert in dog vaccination protocols and an outspoken critic of over-vaccination.
Some veterinarians told Marketplace staff who documented vet visits on hidden camera that they recommend yearly vaccines as a way of making sure that pet owners schedule wellness exams.
Other vets either were not familiar with or did not trust research that says annual shots are unnecessary.
Research in this area is “black and white,” Dr. Dodds said in an interview with Marketplace co-host Erica Johnson for the show’s season premiere, “Barking Mad,” which airs Friday at 8pm.
“There’s plenty of documented evidence that shows that vaccines last much longer than we used to believe, and from now on, vaccines should be given less frequently to those animals that are properly immunized when they were younger.” […]
“[Core] vaccines provide long-term immunity,” said Dr. Ron Schultz, who teaches veterinary medicine at the University of Wisconsin and helped develop the AAHA guidelines.
Dr. Schultz said that giving dogs core vaccines every year is “like vaccinating a human for measles every seven to 10 years for the rest of their lives.”
Here is the response letter from the president of the Canadian Veterinary Medical Association.
Tip of the iceberg, folks.
Take a look at some of the reader comments on these pages from the show “Barking Mad,” which produced this article. While some of our animal-loving friends to the north are more accustomed to the entitlement mentality than we in the U.S. are (thinking that their personal financial strains should entitle them to lowered vet bills) the comments to pay attention to are the ones that deal with the massive over-charging: $15 to write a prescription for an outside pharmacy? Spay surgery that costs more in Canada than the cost of bringing the animal over the border to the U.S., paying for health clearance and a hotel overnight, to have it done here?
One pet parent talked about how “some vets feel horribly put upon and think they are above public scrutiny.” From my research and personal observations, this is an affliction that knows no geographic boundaries.
News flash: Shayna’s List is going to become a prime resource in documenting these outrages.
Got an outrage to report? Email me.
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