Shelter directors who fail to vaccinate all animals prior to or immediately upon intake, utilize standard disease prevention cleaning protocols and/or maintain good housing practices are failing to prevent the spread of diseases such as parvo. Their failure inevitably leads to needless killing of shelter dogs.
The Murray Co pound in Georgia took in a surrendered puppy earlier this month. They did not vaccinate or quarantine the puppy, instead housing him in a kennel with other dogs in general population. The puppy apparently had parvo and Murray Co reported the disease to the state Department of Agriculture.
[Shelter director Diane] Franklin said, “We are following their protocol. They said immediately euthanize the kennel where the animal was discovered which we did. And then from there on, any animal you feel could shed the disease or was an exposure which we did.”
The director was also given the option to quarantine dogs who had been potentially exposed through the director’s own negligence but declined that option. On July 12, Murray Co killed 31 dogs. The facility then closed for the sort of cleaning which should be performed regularly but obviously is not.
“It was a terrible decision. I didn’t sleep last night. I hated doing that, but I’ve got to do it to protect the citizens and the animals of Murray County to try to stop the disease immediately,” Franklin said.
Lost a night’s sleep? Gee I wonder what kind of sleep 31 dogs are getting in the pound’s dumpster. As far as stopping the disease “immediately”, maybe someone should have thought of that before operating the shelter in a sub-standard and negligent manner. Barn door, open.
Murray Co is considering implementing a vaccination protocol in keeping with science. While the possible advancement of shelter vaccination protocols will probably give the director a good night’s sleep, it is of little comfort to the 31 dogs in garbage bags and the families they will never know.
Even if the Murray Co Animal Shelter does bring its vaccination protocols into the 21st century, it still has a long way to go to actually fulfilling the mission implied in its name. From the facility’s website:
The shelter does not adopt out aggressive, sick, injured, or nuisance animals. No pit bull or Rottweiler adoptions are allowed.
A check of the Murray Co Petfinder listings shows 17 pets up for adoption, 16 of whom are cats. When I clicked on the dog, the text read “more dogs available” and showed photos of 2 other dogs with no specifics. Apparently the Murray Co director deemed all the other animals in the place either aggressive, sick, injured, nuisance, Pitbull or Rottweiler. No sleep lost, I guess.
I’m working up a joke for the next Murray Co shelter meeting that will go something like this:
“How does a dog get sick at Murray Co?”
“Walk in the front door.”
It should be followed up with:
“How does a dog get out the back door at Murray Co?”
“Get sick.”
Total lawl, amirite?
(Thank you Clarice for sending me this link.)
now that Purina has purchased Petfinder let’s hope the first thing they do is disallow “shelters” that refuse to place ALL dogs that are place able regardless of breed.. hey I can dream.. and I can CALL Purina and ask them to do this.
And was there a possibility that any of the dogs they killed were owned dogs? Because if they slaughtered my lost (and vaccinated dog), missing sleep would be the least of their concerns.
Very good point mikken. I’d be furious if my vaccinated dog became part of a mass euth.
omg this horror just goes on and on. These ignorant, careless, heartless specimens of humanity just keep doing these horrid things. Over and over. This needs to have a lot of noise made about it. I’m sorry, but these horrid people make a living out of killing these animals. It’s just wrong!
In all my years with being involved in animal shelter/rescue in Georgia, I have never had an Ag inspector recommend wiping out an entire kennel. Georgia is the only state that requires reporting parvovirus, and I do think that is a good thing, but when it’s reported, the inspector will come to the facility within 24 hours (depending on what time of day it’s reported), they inspect, make recommendations for super clean and isolating if agency doesn’t already have protocol in place, then they issue a 14 day quarantine on the room where parvo broke (shelters that do a 2 week auto quarantine on intake will usually contain virus outbreak in that iso area because parvo generally will break in 9 days from initial exposure) and for shelters that do not quarantine on intake and mix all in general population, the Ga Dept of Ag will issue quarantine for entire kennel, which is basically a 14 day stop order, and quarantine says no animals taken in or none go out until quarantine is lifted. If another dog breaks with parvo during 14 day quarantine, the 14 days starts over with day one. They recommend doing a super clean with products such as Vircon, using step pans and assigning individuals to manage quarantine area and those people working quarantine area not allowed in healthy part of kennel (also gloves, outer disposable gowns and head covering ) and disposable bowls changed one to two tomes daily). No food storage is allowed near quarantine either. After 14 days of no parvo incidents the state will come back, reinspect and issue quarantine lift. When shelters choose to euth entire kennel it is THEIR (shelter management) choice and IMO a bad choice because rarely will you see an adult dog break with parvo unless your daily cleaning protocol is lax in which case you will have many disease issues. Vaccines are not expensive and any agency taking in and group housing dogs and cats should be required to at least give vaccine on intake and illness incidents would decrease, however nothing is 100% preventable. I understand when shelters euth the ones that break with parvo if they dont have the means for treatment; however, when I hear of an agency euthanizing the entire population, I can’t help but wonder if they do because its simply the easier route, but its not the route with the animals’ best interest in mind. I’ve pulled animals from Murray many times under the former director who was a very proactive rescue friendly director but for some reason (heard several reasons, none of which I considered valid) she was replaced with someone that came from another county where the euth rate was pretty high. That particular move upset the entire Georgia rescue community, especially those of us who had pulled from Murray under Pauline (previous director). Despite the backlash that came with the decision to bring in a new director, Murray officials still proceeded. It was truly a disservice to the homeless pets of Murray County Ga in my opinion.
Reblogged this on Sherlockian's Blog and commented:
Yet another instance of mass killing at the drop of a hat.
What did he mean, “protect the citizens”? Parvo does not transmit to humans.