The Franklin County dog pound in Ohio received test results positive for distemper on one dog on September 3. The facility remained open and adopted out 67 dogs before finally closing on September 9.
Franklin Co has since killed 84 dogs due to “distemper concerns” and 6 more dogs “for unrelated reasons”. Rescue groups who tried to save some of the exposed dogs from being killed, including mama dogs with litters, were turned away despite having appropriate quarantine and medical care arranged. All while enabling the killing which, you know, is weird:
Misti Martin-Fuller is the executive director of the I Have a Dream Rescue.
[…]
“The staff who are actually having to hold these dogs, walking them down the aisle, and actually administer the drugs? They’re not at fault,” Martin-Fuller said.
The ones doing the actual killing who won’t let us save the dogs? Oh heavens no, not to blame.
Also weird: Rescue groups went to a county judge to obtain a temporary restraining order to stop the killings. The judge granted the order but is requiring rescues to post a $100,000 bond which they are unable to do. The county’s response, natch: we’ll stop killing if rescues cough up the cash.
Donald Winstel, who just took over as shelter director, wants everyone to know that killing is hard:
For now, he said, counselors have been made available for shelter employees.
“Imagine what it would be like to be the caregivers of these dogs, and then, in some cases, to be involved with the process of euthanizing them,” Winstel said. “We understand those feelings. We’re going through that, too.”
They understand those feelings and they’ve got counselors for themselves but locals who recently adopted dogs are having to find out from the news that their pets might be contagious, might get sick and that if they do, it might be serious:
The shelter is not notifying those who were recently adopted of distemper but they are providing care and consultation at no cost to people concerned.
And I think with that, congratulations are in order: Well done, Franklin Co. If only you’d been able to squeeze in a reference to the irresponsible public, you would have had Kill Shelter yahtzee.
(Thanks Clarice.)