It happened again. A cat trapped a couple in a bathroom.

[Ms. Toad]

23. Suit yourself.

The risk of this particular sarcoma is higher than the risk of rabies, particularly if your cat is primarily an indoor cat with a very low risk of exposure to rabies.

I know people who have lost cats to vaccine induced cancer. I don't know anyone who has lost a cat to rabies - and we live in a county where rehabilitation of orphaned infant raccoons is prohibited because rabies is present in the wild. The incidence of rabies in all domestic animals, not just cats, is 4-500 cases/year in the US. http://www.americanhumane.org/animals/adoption-pet-care/caring-for-your-pet/rabies-facts-tips.html (Note: this site also says every 3 years for rabies vaccinations, not 2). The incidence of vaccine induced sarcoma in cats only is four-5 times the risk of rabies in all domestic animals, at around 2000 cases a year in the US. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3299519/

If you are going to continue to expose your cat to 50% more risk than is necessary to prevent rabies, please at least consider insisting that the vet vaccinate in the hind leg. (I'm betting that if your vet is behind the times enough to still be recommending 2x a year, that s/he is also still vaccinating near the scruff of the neck, which makes it impossible to survive the tumor that would develop.)