On Friday, shelter officials confirmed one case of distemper after an adopted dog was brought back to the shelter and showed symptoms.
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More than 200 people, and about a dozen dogs, gathered outside the Franklin County administrative building on South High Street today to protest the euthanizing of the dogs over the weekend.
In all, 60 dogs have been euthanized as the shelter tries to contain a respiratory disease outbreak that traces back to August 31. However, because the virus can be transferred in the air and highly contagious, authorities believe that most, if not all, of the dogs in the shelter were exposed.
They say that making the heartbreaking decision was necessary to keep distemper, an often-fatal airborne canine virus, from spreading throughout their facility and central Ohio.
In the following days, more dogs started to show signs of the disease, and the shelter opted to close last Friday, September 9. New dogs coming into the shelter could be put up for adoption later this week.
At present, the shelter was divided into two sections. Westerman said, though, that the real shady behavior was the lack of transparency about the situation while the shelter continued to participate in events and promotional sales throughout the week.
The vets will designate every animal as either exposed or unexposed based on their time in the shelter and proximity to dogs potentially infected with distemper based on clinical signs.
Earlier at the shelter, spokeswoman Susan Smith declined an interview but promised that more information would be forthcoming. The shelter will be open for for lost dog services only.
“They ignore us and we’re exhausted of it”. The release did not detail what kind of protocol they are supposed to follow when an outbreak such as this happens, or the changes to policy they expect to see in the future.
On Monday, 19 dogs were moved into a medically supervised quarantine site away from the shelter.
The Board of Commissioners is aware of the respiratory infection outbreak at the Franklin County Dog Shelter, and has been closely monitoring the situation.
Neither statements addressed the potential risk recently adopted dogs might pose to dogs already owned by Franklin County residents.
“Luckily Teddy does not have any of those symptoms”.
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Test results confirmed that diagnosis on September 3, and the shelter closed last Friday.
