Bell County’s ordinance requires people to have pets vaccinated against the disease annually, which critics say only puts animals unnecessarily at risk and money into the pockets of veterinarians.
Faithful pet owners are bringing their animals into veterinarian offices and getting three-year boosters on an annual basis. The state of Texas recommends boosters be administered a minimum of every three years.
“Vaccines are not without consequences,” said Dr. Laura Szeremi, a veterinarian who serves on Killeen’s animal advisory committee and has spent five years trying to get the city to adjust its ordinance. Szeremi said she only learned recently that Killeen cannot change its ordinance until the county alters the one it has had in place since 2000.
“It (annual boosters) does not protect the public or the pet,” Szeremi said. “It’s a policy that no place else in the country agrees with.”
The rabies vaccine issue only appeared on the radar of county commissioners May 25 when it was addressed for the first time publicly. Each commissioner had received an e-mail questioning the county policy.
The item was discussed for only about five minutes with the group initially satisfied with the recommendation of respected area veterinarian Dr. Warren Dunn that rabies vaccinations should be done annually.
Commissioners didn’t put much stock in the e-mail because it had been sent from the account of Kris Christine, a Maine resident who is an advocate for limiting pet vaccinations but has no ties to Texas.
County Judge Jon Burrows said the e-mail appeared to be a “shotgun e-mail,” or a message sent to municipalities at random.
In addition, Burrows said he had only received one complaint from a Bell County resident about the vaccination policy, and that was last year in an e-mail message.
Christine said her e-mail specifically targeted Bell County because she became aware of the county’s policy after a local resident reached out to her over the Internet.
“There really is no justification for an annual rabies protocol,” Christine said.
Christine said the scientific research data is overwhelmingly in favor of rabies immunizations being needed only every three years. She said the scientific evidence behind Bell County’s policy is akin to saying the world is flat when all evidence points to it being round.
While it’s too early to tell how the campaign Christine has helped spearhead in Bell County will turn out, she has had success at changing rabies laws all over the nation.
She said her efforts have changed laws in Wichita and Cheyenne, Rhode Island and Alabama, and she said Arkansas is also in the process of adopting the three-year standard.
“Dr. Dunn is not disclosing important information,” Christine said. “The rabies vaccine is the most potent of all veterinary vaccines. It jeopardizes the health of animals. The more vaccines you give a dog, the more likely they are to have an adverse reaction, and cats are even more likely.”
Dunn said he doesn’t view himself as an official adviser for the county on the issue. He says commissioners asked his opinion and he has given it.
“It’s based on lots of years of precedent and experience with things that work,” Dunn said. “I’d rather be over-protected than under-protected. This is a deadly disease. I bet she’s (Christine) never seen rabies. I have. They (animals) don’t live over it. People don’t live over it. In my way of looking at it, vaccinate the dog.
“I’ve practiced 32 years and I’ve seen probably one fatality that might have come from a rabies shot in all that time.”
Dunn says there are more incidents of rabies in Bell County compared to other places and that administering the vaccine yearly is a way to make sure a pet is protected. In addition, he said the booster does not always “take” and doing a yearly booster is cheaper than testing an animal’s blood to determine if the vaccine is still active.
Szeremi said she believes how often a vaccination is administered to a pet should be a personal decision between a client and their veterinarian. She said there are no statistical data that support the idea a pet has extra protection because of frequent boosters.
“In almost every county and every state in this country, the requirement is three years,” she said.
Szeremi addressed the booster not taking or failing, saying, “I’ve not seen a single instance of that happening here. There have only been a few vaccine failures nationwide in the past 20 years.”
She believes it is sufficient for a dog to be immunized against rabies when it is a puppy, then at a year old and after that every three years.
“There’s never been a documented case of rabies that I’m aware of after that first booster,” she said.
Szeremi describes the clientele who bring animals to the Banfield Pet Hospital in Killeen as transient because many are in the military. She said there is real frustration among her clients because of the policy.
“I just explain that I’ve been trying to get it changed,” she said.
Texas relaxed its rabies vaccination standard in 2002, two years after the county adopted its ordinance.
Bell County Attorney Rick Miller said he would be advising commissioners on Monday that under state law they have an option to keep the standard as it reads or change it to a three-year booster.
Bell County Commissioner Richard Cortese, Precinct 1, said commissioners remain open-minded about the issue.
“We’re going to take this back to our veterinarians and do what they say,” he said. “If there is really some compelling evidence, we’ll look at it.”
Trusting the issue to local veterinarians alone is an approach both Szemeri and Christine are critical about.
“A lot of hospitals, it is their main cost center, how they get clients to visit every year,” Szemeri said. “It can be a conflict of interest in that regard.”
Dunn, who owns the Belton Veterinary Clinic on Loop 121 in Belton, said his clinic does not depend on the income from administering annual rabies vaccines.
“That’s not our purpose of defense,” he said. “It’s just that this disease process is just so severe.”
