Vaccine hesitancy affects dog-owners, too, with many questioning the rabies shot

Cindy Marabito runs a pit bull rescue out of her house in Austin, Texas. "We're the only raw-feeding, holistic, completely no-kill pit bull refuge and rescue in the United States," she says. She currently has nine dogs that roam her big, mulched backyard by the banks of the Colorado River.

The philosophy of her rescue is to give "low to no vaccines."

In most states – including Texas – dog owners are required to give their pets a rabies shot every three years. Health officials say the shots keep rabies – a disease with a 99% fatality rate for humans and animals – at bay.

But Marabito considers the current vaccination guidelines "excessive." She's one of many pet owners with "canine vaccine hesitancy," a phrase coined led by the Boston University School of Public Health and published in the journal . The study found