The New Anti-Vax Economy in Pets

Issue #260

October 29, 2025

Quick Hits:

📸 A photo series of a Bulldog playing dress up in 1905

😡 The Onion crosses the line with the internet with it’s shelter dog headline

🎂 BARK expands subscriber value: $1,500+ in perks to boost retention & spend

🫶 New alliance enables remote animal health monitoring for clinical studies

🤑 It’s that $860M time of the year (hint: 🐕️ + 🎃 )

📈 September petflation climbs to 3.5% vs last year

In a small Colorado veterinary clinic, Dr. Kelly McGuire has watched routine pet visits turn into tense standoffs.

Some pet owners now refuse core shots for their dogs and cats, even for deadly diseases like rabies and parvovirus.

One client stormed out when asked to vaccinate her indoor cats, accusing the vet of trying to "kill" them with unnecessary shots.

Another insisted her 20-week-old puppy's seizures might be "pawtism" (pet autism) caused by vaccines — a myth gaining traction online, despite the fact that autism doesn't exist in animals.

These confrontations, virtually unheard of a decade ago, highlight a widening trust gap in pet health.

Vaccine skepticism is emerging as a proxy for a deeper shift in pet-owner beliefs (typically mirroring their own health beliefs), one that could reshape everything from pet food choices to insurance policies.

This "trust recession" is forcing the industry to grapple with a new reality where a growing cohort of pet parents are questioning institutional advice and forging their own paths in pet wellness.

The Numbers Tell a Story

For public health experts, anti-vaccine sentiment in human medicine has been a worrying trend of the 2020s.

Now that skepticism is spilling over into veterinary medicine.

According to a 2023 national survey, over half of U.S. dog owners expressed some level of uncertainty about pet vaccines. Nearly 37% believed canine vaccines are unsafe, 22% considered them ineffective, and 30% deemed them unnecessary.

By late 2024, follow-up research that included cat owners painted a similar picture.

Roughly 22% of dog owners and 26% of cat owners qualified as vaccine-hesitant in their attitudes.

These aren't fringe numbers.

They suggest a sizable minority of pet households are questioning the value or safety of standard vaccinations.

Veterinarians across the country confirm that COVID-19's aftershocks have reached the pet exam room.

Dr. Matt Motta, a Boston University health-policy researcher who led the 2023 canine vaccine hesitancy study, notes that people's feelings about COVID shots have "changed the way they feel about all vaccines, including vaccines for their pets."

Surveys show a clear association - owners skeptical of human vaccines are more likely to delay or skip shots for their animals.

Dr. McGuire has seen the tragic results.

A dog's kidneys fatally shut down from leptospirosis.

Several puppies died "sloughing their guts" from parvovirus.

An unvaccinated 5-month-old puppy with neurological symptoms had to be euthanized on suspicion of rabies.

Clients increasingly push back despite such risks, sometimes accusing vets of profiteering or "overvaccinating" for profit.

The challenge is quantifying this shift. There's no centralized CDC-equivalent tracking pet immunization rates in the U.S. "We have a real data issue," admits Dr. Audrey Ruple, a veterinary epidemiologist at Virginia Tech.

What we do know comes from patchwork sources that suggest significant hesitancy, but not yet a collapse in compliance.

One 2024 study found only about 4% of dogs and 12% of cats remained completely unvaccinated for rabies.

Most states mandate rabies vaccines, which provides a baseline of coverage.

But experts warn that if the anti-vax movement further erodes trust, even rabies laws could face pushback.

Why Pet Owners Are Questioning Everything

At the core of this shift is a broader decline in institutional trust.

Over the past few years, segments of the public have grown wary of government health agencies, pharmaceutical companies, and even large corporate veterinary chains.

The pandemic's politicization of science primed some people to question anything labeled "official" advice, and that distrust has extended to how they care for their animals.

In focus groups and social media threads, pet owners voice suspicion that "Big Vet" is in cahoots with "Big Pharma," pushing yearly shots and expensive preventatives for profit.

As one pet owner put it…

The internet-fueled echo chamber amplifies these concerns.

Pet health communities on Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok are filled with personal stories that often overshadow hard data.

If a dog has an adverse reaction after a vet visit, the owner's emotional post can go viral, seeding a narrative that "vaccines caused it" even without scientific evidence. Influencers in the "natural pet care" space amplify these stories, sometimes selling alternative remedies on the side.

Dr. Andrew Jones, who might be this biggest DVM influencer on the internet, once posted a video suggesting that owners shouldn’t get vaccines for diseases that “they don’t need” which can lead to more hesitancy as everybody’s situation and enviroment is different.

@veterinarysecrets

Dr Jones suggests vaccinate your dog for this.. but NOT all these! #dogvaccination #dogvaccine #vaccine #vaccinesideeffect

Underpinning much of this is what psychologists call the "naturalness bias"—the instinctive belief that less intervention is inherently healthier.

Pet owners inclined toward organic diets and chemical-free homes may generalize that intuition to medical care.

About 60% of pet owners now say pets receive too many vaccines, despite modern protocols that have cut vaccine frequency for many shots to once every three years.

A significant subset believe it's better for an animal to catch a disease and develop "natural immunity" than to be vaccinated.

The emotional intensity of the pet-human bond plays a role too.

The more pets are seen as family members, the more owners apply the same protective scrutiny to pet care that they would to child care.

Dr. McGuire even joined a support group of vets and pediatric doctors to swap advice on handling vaccine refusers, admitting they're "tired of having the same conversation over and over."

Market Realignment in Full Swing

This shift in mindset is realigning pet industry markets. The same owners spacing out rabies shots are often seeking alternative products that align with their philosophy.

Natural and ancestral diets are booming. The global raw pet food market alone hit an estimated $2.7B in 2024, forecast to more than double by 2033. Industry analysts attribute this growth partly to "a growing distrust of highly processed commercial pet foods."

In U.S. retail, fresh and frozen pet food grew 16.1% in dollar sales in 2024, even as conventional kibble sales stagnated.

Holistic veterinary services are moving mainstream. As some pet owners grow disillusioned with conventional vet clinics, there's rising interest in integrative medicine that blends standard care with acupuncture, chiropractic, and herbal remedies. Pet insurance data show increased claims for alternative therapies, and popular holistic veterinarians in some regions have months-long waitlists.

The supplements market is on fire. U.S. pet supplement sales exceeded $2.7B in 2024, up significantly from around $1.8B just a few years prior. Immune system support has become a major selling point, with products marketed as "natural immunity boosters" implicitly positioned as adjuncts or alternatives to vaccines. While mobility and joint support remain top sellers, anxiety relief and immune support are fast-growing segments.

Chemical-free products are proliferating. Pet owners averse to "chemicals" in their pets' bodies extend that concern to grooming and parasite control. Natural flea and tick repellents and "non-toxic" grooming products are selling briskly, especially to millennial pet owners who correlate them with better health.

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From an industry perspective, this divide creates both challenges and opportunities. Established pet healthcare brands risk losing trust with a segment of their customer base and must adapt by emphasizing transparency and evidence.

Some are doing just that. Pet food companies now spotlight ingredient sourcing and testing, while vaccine manufacturers and large vet chains invest in owner education campaigns.

On the flip side, alternative pet wellness brands are thriving.

Regulatory Pressure Points

If pet owners increasingly skip shots, it's not just a veterinary concern.

Rabies sits at the nexus of public health and law. Because rabies is almost invariably fatal and can spread to humans, most states legally require dogs and often cats to be vaccinated.

But with vaccine hesitancy rising, officials worry that even rabies laws could face pushback.

Florida's Surgeon General announced in September that the state intends to eliminate all vaccine mandates, framing it as a freedom issue. It's not a stretch to imagine similar arguments arising over pet vaccines.

If future legislation in some states were to relax rabies requirements, we could see lower vaccination rates and a potential resurgence of a disease historically tamed through rigorous pet vaccination.

Colorado recently took the opposite approach.

In 2023, the state passed new rules requiring proof of core vaccinations before any pet can be groomed, boarded, or enter a daycare. The mandate came after disease outbreaks in shelters and was intended to boost compliance.

This puts pet service providers in a tough spot.

Enforce vaccine requirements and possibly lose the "natural-minded" customers, or relax requirements and risk outbreaks with legal liability.

The insurance industry is paying attention. Pet businesses carry liability insurance, and insurers might respond to preventable disease outbreaks with higher premiums or vaccine compliance clauses.

Pet health insurers have skin in the game too. If more pets skip vaccines, insurers could see higher claims for diseases like parvo and distemper, all super expensive to treat.

Some pet insurance policies already have fine print stating they won't cover illnesses that could have been prevented by recommended vaccines. We might see insurers take a harder line, perhaps offering wellness incentives for vaccinated pets or surcharges for unvaccinated ones.

The Tech Wild Card

One striking aspect of this issue is how little hard data exists on pet health outcomes at scale.

Unlike human medicine, the pet world has no unified database tracking what interventions pets receive and how it affects them long-term. This evidence gap has allowed speculation and confirmation bias to thrive.

Enter pet wearables and health tracking apps.

By 2024, the U.S. pet wearable market reached roughly $1.0B in annual revenue, projected to nearly triple by the early 2030s. These devices now track activity levels, sleep patterns, pain, heart and respiratory rates, and even scratching and eating behaviors. Tens of millions of pets are quietly generating health data points every day via devices like PetPace, Tractive, and Maven.

For the first time, we have the potential to do large-scale, real-world studies on pet health interventions.

A platform analyzing anonymized data from 100,000 dogs could compare illness frequency in dogs who received all core vaccines versus those who didn't, or analyze whether raw-fed dogs live longer than kibble-fed ones.

Forward-thinking companies are moving in this direction.

Some pet wearable platforms have hinted at adding vaccination and medical record fields in their apps, effectively creating a crowdsourced pet health database.

The goal is evidence-based clarity—to use big data to identify what truly correlates with better outcomes.

Industry stakeholders see opportunity here.

Pet tech companies, by providing actionable health insights, can position themselves as trusted sources of truth, potentially filling the void left by institutions.

Transparency through data could rebuild trust, but it will require careful stewardship around privacy concerns and rigorous, unbiased analysis.

Fighting Misinformation With Better Storytelling

The battle for pet owners' hearts and minds is happening on social media feeds, blogs, and celebrity circles.

A new breed of pet "anti-mainstream" influencers has found eager audiences by tapping into mistrust and offering alternative narratives.

On TikTok, many videos from pet owners talking about raw pet food or natural pet care have garnered millions of views, often with claims that conventional pet food, vaccines, and meds are harming pets.

Organizations at the forefront of human anti-vaccine activism have expanded into pet health. Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s group, Children's Health Defense, recently published a book by a holistic veterinarian that talks about how an acupuncturist helped her uncover that her own dog developed an auto-immune disease from a vaccine for Lymes disease.

These narratives outperform institutional messaging because they're built on storytelling and relatability.

For pet industry brands and professionals, ignoring this influence sphere isn't an option. Fighting misinformation with pure facts such as a vet debunking myths point-by-point, while necessary, often isn't sufficient by itself.

The industry must complement facts with authentic engagement and transparency.

Some are partnering with credible micro-influencers, pro-science pet voices like vet techs with TikTok followings in order to amplify fact-based perspectives.

The tone has to be right.

The audience disillusioned with "expert" opinion won't respond to condescension. What might work is storytelling backed by data and sharing case studies of pets who suffered preventable diseases, but doing so with compassion rather than shaming.

What Comes Next

Vaccine hesitancy among pet owners may be the visible tip of a deeper iceberg.

A transformation in how consumers define "good pet parenting" and whom they trust to guide it. What we're witnessing isn't a fleeting fad, but part of a larger journey from institutional medicine to personal sovereignty in pet care.

Simply doubling down on "trust the science" won't sway the skeptics.

The next phase of the pet industry will be defined by those who can rebuild trust through transparency, data, and respect for owners' perspectives.

That might mean veterinarians spending extra time to show a concerned dog owner the evidence and listen to their fears without judgment.

It might mean pet food and pharma companies embracing radical openness, inviting scrutiny, publishing research, and engaging with online communities in good faith.

There's risk ahead.

A trust recession, if unaddressed, could lead to more sick pets, strained vet-client relationships, and a polarized market.

But there's also opportunity.

Pet owners' passion for doing right by their animals is a powerful force.

Brands that empower owners with knowledge and choices while still grounding them in sound science will thrive.

In the end, everyone in the pet ecosystem shares a common goal…healthier, happier pets and humans living together.

Bridging the trust divide is work, but the payoff is a future where pet wellness debates are guided by evidence and empathy rather than ideology.

Vaccine skepticism in pets is the canary in the coal mine, warning us that trust, once lost, must be earned back differently.

The companies and caregivers who heed that warning, adapting with humility and innovation, will chart a more resilient, trust-centered future for pet health.

Interest in “dog vaccines” is climbing — searches are up 24% YoY and have been trending upward since late 2022.

What’s notable is the volatility. Search surges often coincide with moments of public anxiety (news cycles, rabies scares, political chatter around mandates) rather than routine vaccination windows.

That suggests the conversation isn’t just “when’s my dog due?”

It’s Why are these shots necessary? Which ones? How often?

In other words, consumer uncertainty (vaccine hesitancy) is driving curiosity.

For brands and vets, this rising search volume is both signal and opportunity. More owners are actively seeking answers, but they’re not always finding trustworthy sources first — which leaves room for misinformation to take root.

Rising search interest clearly doesn’t automatically mean growing compliance — but it does mean growing influence for whoever owns the narrative.

See you Friday!