To Vaccinate or not to vaccinate?

I know my opinion -- quite frankly my dogs are vaccinated for rabies.

I live in an area with a VERY high number of confirmed rabies cases each year. This year alone there has already been 17 confirmed (thru testing) positive rabies cases in Guilford County (North Carolina).... in Forsyth County (NC) there have been 29 confirmed cases so far this year.... Guilford and Forsyth are neighboring counties to me.... In the county I live in (Randolph county) I've been unable to get a total number of confirmed rabies cases but found a few news articles about a few confirmed rabies cases over the past year.

One story about a 5yr old girl in Randolph county who was bitten by a rabid fox. Her dad shot and killed the fox and it later tested positive for rabies, so now the whole family is getting treatment for rabies...

About 2 yrs ago when I worked at a vet clinic in Guilford Co. we had a guy bring in his dog for a rabies vaccine, who was way overdue. After the dog was dropped off animal control called looking for the dog... apparently the dog killed a raccoon that tested positive for rabies and the owner was supposed to have the dog at animal control by noon of that day..... but he never showed up.

I recently joined an e-mail list that is a anti-vaccination list.... and recently some of the people on there were talking about how they do not do rabies vaccines on their dogs, even if required by law... they said if they need to show proof they have made up certificates on their own, or in some states where you can buy rabies vaccines and give them yourself they said they just use those tags that come with the vaccines to show as proof the dogs were vaccinated.... but don't actually vaccinate their dogs.

Anyway I wrote to that e-mail list with a question on whether they would vaccinate their animals for rabies if they lived in an area much like mine with a high number of confirmed rabies cases each year... and posted the stories that I have above in this message.... today I got a private e-mail from someone on the list basicly telling me I'm making these stories up and there are to many holes in my story for it to be true blah blah blah.... when everything I posted was 100% truthful and I could prove it with the online news reports....apparently they don't live in an area with rabies!!

I know in my area if your dog is over due on rabies or you don't have proof of vaccination and something happens... its bitten by a rabid animal or it bites another animal or person because of the number of rabies cases in this area, animal control will take your dog and ask questions later....

So whats your opinion???....