Heidi Jordan

As a pet owner for my entire 62 years of life, New Hampshire needs to allow our pets to live healthy and allow owners and veterinarians to determine risk and exposure when it comes to rabies. I have had dozens of dogs, cats horses through my lifetime. I titer my pets for whatever I can so that I do not unnecessarily strain their immune system systems by vaccinating when they are still protected. When one out of every two dogs has some sort of cancer by age 10, this is crazy. One of the greatest risks for cancer is inflammation. That includes the inflammation and burden on an animal immune system. I have small dogs that are never out of my sight. They are in my front yard with me. Their risk and exposure is minimal perhaps compared to others running loose through a large environment. I have had multiple vets. Tell me do not vaccinate against rabies right now. One of my dogs just completed chemotherapy for lymphoma. That rabies vaccine would drastically shorten his life and inhibit the treatment. He has just gone through. My last foster dog developed cancer, and that vet agreed that a rabies vaccine most likely would have brought on a rapid decline into death. One of my other dogs had been healthy his entire 10 years of life. The last time he had a rabies vaccine, his entire back opened up into a bloody hotspot within 12 hours. Nothing else in his environment had changed. It was horrific and painful for him. My Vet does not want to put him through that again. It’s about risk and exposure. If we can titer our animals and confirm that they still have immunity, why would we want to harm them with an unnecessary rabies vaccine. This is a vaccine that most definitely causes more reactions and injury than any other. It’s beyond time for New Hampshire to allow our animals to live free and healthy with their educated owners, and the agreement of their veterinarians.