Also, holy crap, I just saw the statistics on Somali immigrants and immunization rates. What the fuck?!
The Somali community here has been literally targeted by the fucking anti-vaxxers. I mean, yeah, you should still know better by virtue of being a human being with the power of critical thinking, but the evil sonsabitches fucking found a community more likely to be less-educated and not as steeped in our cultural norms and knowledge (and thus less trusting of the common wisdom, etc), and intentionally spew their poison directly at them.
The motherfuckers are all going to the special hell.
That is so fucking gross. I hope the anti-vaxxers descending on the immigrant communities die horribly of easily preventable diseases (quarantined from the rest of us, of course).
Fuck willful ignorance, in all it’s forms.
Of course they won’t. These people got vaccinated because their parents were sane.
Maybe AntiVaxxerCon 2018 will be hit by a meteor.
I got my two cats vaccinated last week.
Pretty sure they are BOTH autistic now. They never speak, and roll around on the ground, obsessed with cheap plastic toys.
I think we found our next press secretary!
The first time I heard about this spreading to pet owners was last year. There’s a radio show on the weekends that features people calling in for pet advice. One of the hosts is a vet and her advice usually always ends with the sensible plea for the pet-owner to get their little buddy into a their vet’s office and checked out. One time, this dog owner called in about one of his hunting dogs for something or another. When the vet suggested he take her in to a qualified vet to get her vaccines, the crazy came out.
“Now you know vaccines cause diseases, and I don’t want my pup to get autism, so I can’t let anyone shoot her up with that stuff.”
She gently tried to steer him towards the vet again, but he audibly started getting agitated. After a couple more tries at sensibility, she finally hung up on him and told the audience that she couldn’t in good conscience advocate missing canine vaccines.
I thought, “Yup. It makes sense that this brand of stupid has made its way to pet owners.”
The idea of your Dog getting autism is so nonsensical… It’s like… wtf are you talking about, dude? It’s a freaking dog. What’s the vaccine gonna do, make him really good at math?
On a separate note, while unrelated to the vaccines, I think my cat DID in fact get a cold at the vet, since he’s been sneezing a lot since. I figure it’s related, since it’s really his only exposure to cats outside my house.
But I’ll just watch him, and it’ll probably clear up. If not, back to the vet he goes.
This is Max, who really does not like the vet. Claudia didn’t mind the vet at all.
Applying human standards of cognition to animals is kinda crazy. I have 3 birds (2 parrots and a cockatoo) and if they were human, we would say all 3 have severe ADHD. But they are perfectly healthy birds; being ADHD is normal for them.
If they don’t have personal experience with it, don’t expect people to know with any sophistication what autism is. As far as they are concerned it might as well be scary brain cancer, so don’t expect great cognitive leaps of causality.
Can dogs even be autistic? And if they were how would you know? Give them the paw stomp math test?
Good call. If it’s a cold, there’s about as much that a vet can do as a human doctor, but an antibiotic can help with any secondary infections that may spring from it and the vet can provide an appetite stimulant if needed (you can scold a human into eating when they don’t feel like it, but good luck if you try that with a cat, lol).
Ya, usually viral, so can’t do much.
I’ve never heard of autism in animals. You’re saying this is a thing, as in more than one random person has commented on this being a thing?
I know dogs can be mentally challenged. There were a few articles floating around about a golden retriever who just couldn’t get it but a very happy pet with an owner that just realizes that dog will not learn fancy tricks… if any.
Speaking as a long time lover and owner of retrievers:
they are not a smart dog. Great pets, but definitely bottom half in terms of intelligence. Unless it’s about food, or hunting animals. Those they are good at.
Apparently.
I’m pretty sure “autism in animals” as meant by vaccine deniers doesn’t exist in reality. Animals can of course have a variety of brain problems, but “autism in animals” is basically a bugaboo, not a real thing.
This is just another wrinkle of the anti-vaxx foolishness. In my personal opinion, people who deny their pets necessary vaccination due to this kind of dumbassery are guilty of cruelty to animals.
The only reason I kind of believed the owner is this was the second retriever. It was a direct comparison between two of the same breed, and the vet might have suggest there was a slight mental issue with the god, but again, it’s not like the dog couldn’t be a dog. They just didn’t’ pick up on the tricks like the other dog, or maybe it was trainers that gave up on the dog. Either way, it’s not like a slow dog is an unhappy dog or even leads to unhappy owner.
I didn’t want to give any clicks to that site, but it sounds like an in-the-tank-anti-vaxx site. Is that right? If so, it just reinforces how idiotic this is.