Guarding Your Dog From Distemper

Distemper is a contagious, incurable virus takes the lives of tens of thousands of dogs in the U.S. It kills thousands more dogs than rabies, and eradicating it is one of our top animal wellness priorities. It’s entirely preventable. Just a few shots of a vaccine into a dog guards the animal from one of the worst canine diseases imaginable. In the later stages of the disease, the virus can attack the nervous system, brain, and spinal cord, and cause fits, seizures, paralysis, and attacks of hysteria. There’s no industry delivering this misery to dogs; it’s entirely up to the dog-loving community to prevent this scourge and eradicate it, just as the public-health community has ended smallpox, polio, and other diseases that not long ago killed millions of people. To endless needless suffering, we’ll educate pet caregivers about the need for vaccinating dogs against distemper, urge animal care and control agencies to make vaccination a priority, and provide free or subsidized vaccinations within lower-income communities. (Much like distemper, heart worm is preventable through vaccination and awareness-building.)