I read on a holistic website that shots are not very healthy for dogs, that most shots are good for several yrs, and that the only shot required by law every 3 yrs is a rabies shot. So I just skipped the shots for my -zu this year.
my neighbor's german shepherd just died of distemper, because he did not have his latest shot. Is this possible and why would canine shots not be legally required if this is true. Does anybody know??

labman

Do some research, and you will find a certain percentage of dogs have bad reactions from any type of shots and even die. There comes a point where more shots kill more dogs that they save. We stopped giving people smallpox vaccinations. However, the number of dogs dying from bad reactions is very small. And as your neighbor found out, unvaccinated dogs die. At a very minimum, I would do the required rabies annually and a DLCP at least every 3 years, although yearly would be safer.

Rabies is regulated and not most other things because people can get rabies. If I have my dogs vaccinated, your neighbor's dog's distemper are no danger to me or my dogs. If you don't vaccinate your dog, and it dies, that is hurtful to you, not me. I think there are already too many good ideas written into law.

abcs

I'm curious as to why you phrased the question that way. Is it possible that a dog that was not up to date on his distemper shots caught distemper and died? Of course!!!

The rabies vaccine is required by law because rabies is a public health risk for humans. Unfortunately the law does not always go as far to protect animals. As labman pointed out, reactions to vaccines are quite rare, and if your dog has already had the distemper vaccine the chances of him developing an allergy now are even less. And given the fact that your dog has been in close proximity with a dog with distemper, I'd say he's more at risk now than if he had been vaccinated.