Thursday, July 10, 2008

Shelters and Disease: Death Behind Closed Doors

The Marion County shelter in Florida closed today so they could kill 84 dogs with contagious diseases such as Parvo, Kennel Cough and Canine Flu. No word on why some or all of the 84 couldn't be medically treated and restored to health, especially since some of the dogs being killed are symptom free.


On the opposite coast, volunteers at a shelter in San Luis Obispo County, California told a local newspaper (on condition of anonymity since their bosses don't want them talking to the media) that dozens of cats have died from or been euthanized for Distemper in recent weeks.

"Both volunteers said they believe the shelter was slow to implement an effective quarantine, and both volunteers said members of the public and inmates from the honor farm, who assist at the shelter, were still recently observed entering the supposedly quarantined area, without precautions in place to prevent the spread of the disease.

A volunteer also expressed concern that people were still being allowed to drop off cats and kittens, and that others adopting pets were not being warned of the outbreak."

The shelter director's response? He said they are not required to make such outbreaks of disease known to anyone. And I guess that's good enough for him. It will be interesting to read the Humane Society's report on this shelter, expected this month. Full article here.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Yuts, daw palagpat imo blog.

Jan said...

I do a lot of volunteer work including working with animals. I can't even imagine someone telling me I can't talk to the press. There is this, you know, US Constitution thing....

YesBiscuit! said...

Is that still around? ;-P