Vaccination of companion animals protects individual animal welfare and contributes to community-level disease control that protects wildlife, other companion animals, and in some cases humans sharing the environment.
Companion animal vaccination is both an individual welfare intervention and a community-level public good. The individual welfare case is straightforward — preventing diseases that cause significant suffering and death with a brief injection and minimal adverse effects represents among the most favorable welfare trade-offs available in veterinary medicine. The community welfare case extends to wildlife populations that benefit from reduced disease reservoirs near human-domestic animal interfaces. The decision not to vaccinate based on unsubstantiated safety concerns imposes welfare costs on individual animals and undermines herd immunity effects that protect vulnerable community members including wildlife.