Parvo is a highly preventable and treatable disease, even in a shelter environment. The diagnosis of parvo, whether confirmed or merely suspected, is not a license to kill dogs. Euthanasia is appropriate based upon veterinary prognosis for an individual when a vet determines the dog is suffering and his chances of recovery through treatment are poor to grave.
The Conroe Animal Shelter in TX is run by the police department. The shelter does not appear to be fulfilling its obligations to provide true shelter to dogs in terms of prevention or treatment of parvo:
While the shelter immunizes animals brought into the facility, there is a 72-hour waiting period mandated by the state.
Please show me this TX law that says the mandatory stray hold requires shelters to shun best practices. And what about owner surrenders without documented vaccination history – does this same law require them to be left unvaccinated for 72 hours in the shelter too? Ridiculous.
And yet when a recent parvo outbreak at the Conroe Animal Shelter made the news, deputy chief of police Russell Reynolds astonishingly told a reporter:
“It is very important for pet owners to get their dogs vaccinated.”
Really?
When two dogs were impounded on April 4 who “displayed positive symptoms of the viral disorder”, the Conroe facility killed 60 dogs in response. They also ceased adoptions. Not that they had any live dogs left to adopt, I imagine.
“We’re doing everything we can to address the situation,” [Reynolds] said.
No you’re not. Following standard disease prevention protocols, including vaccination upon intake; providing treatment to dogs based upon veterinary diagnosis, not “looks like parvo”; and reserving euthanasia only for those individuals whom a veterinarian issues a poor to grave prognosis with treatment – that would be doing everything you can. What you’re doing is nothing. Nothing but killing.
(Thank you Clarice for the links.)
Sometimes all you can do is just scream about the stupidity. And the first picture of all the dogs in the crate just breaks my heart.
I posted two comments on the shelter’s FB page about the 60 dogs murdered even though there was no proof that ANY of the dogs had parvo. I jut looked at their site again and noticed my comments were deleted (duh) and nowhere to make a comment on their page. There’s been a news report about the murders but of course, the reporter, the vet and the police in charge are saying that once one dog gets parvo “well (shrugs shoulders) there’s really nothing else to do”.
Do they have an email address? I think that will get to them more than FB comments will.
Oh, and in just minutes the link to the news report was removed from the shelter’s FB page. I guess they’re cleaning more than the shelter. Here’s the link to the news report:
http://abclocal.go.com/ktrk/video?id=9058906
Their PetFinder page is…weird. Some animals in traps or on chokepoles, some dressed up and photographed carefully. Some have both types of photos for the same animal…
But all of them say “up to date on routine shots” (including what looks like tiny kittens?). Are these animals vaccinated after the hold period is up and then put up on PetFinder? Do they have no “found animal”s so that they can reunite owners with lost pets? Or are their animals not actually up to date on routine shots?
The whole thing looks disjointed and “off”. And killing sixty dogs because two may have had parvo is just…disgusting. Casual killing for convenience.
Police running a shelter is not the brightest idea. What stupid people thought up this stupid idea? What if you don’t like animals and they put you there to work. A shelter environment should have people who want to do the job. Not get the job because you need a job.
I found your blog when I was recently thinking of adopting after the loss of my dog of 10 years. We did adopt– a puppy from the Conroe Animal Shelter, so it was very strange to be linked back in the wake of this tragedy. He is a super puppy and I was sick at heart to get the call today that they had an outbreak of parvo and distemper, and that my pup is at risk. The news story says parvo, but we were informed it is also distemper. (My vet thinks my pup has safely passed the incubation period for parvo but could still have distemper. He also had mange.)
I’m not super thrilled about them right now, obviously, but I did want to say a few things having been to the shelter. First is that the top two pictures on your blog post are fortunately not at all representative of what I saw at the shelter. The dogs were housed singly or with littermates, and there were no rusty cages. Also, my puppy, who was an owner surrender, was vaccinated on intake.
Mikken, I think the explanation to the dual photos is that it is a city shelter and employees do the intake, and then their volunteer force gets around to the animals again for foster or for the nice photos.
Anyway, please keep my pup in your thoughts, and hopefully we got him out of there in time!
Is your dog sick? If he was vax upon intake, that is good. Please let us know how things go.
Thanks for asking–I took him to our vet today and he just got the all clear. We still have to wait a couple more days to see if he comes down with anything. Cautiously optimistic that it is a happy ending for us!
Her is a place where the ASPCA/HSUS?PETA could do a world of good..instead of the sad songs and killing saga.. why not a “How important is it that my animals is protected from PARVO.. and other diseases” campaign..imagien the lives they could save.. oh wait….