PRINCETON —
Mercer County’s animal shelter went under quarantine Tuesday after two canine diseases were detected among the dogs and puppies housed there.
“We’re going to be under a two-week quarantine,” said Director Lisa Williams. “We’ve had an outbreak of distemper and parvo.”
Distemper is a dog disease that affects canine nervous systems, and parvo is more of an intestinal disease, Williams said. To help keep these diseases from spreading among the county’s dogs, no dogs or puppies are being accepted at the shelter, and none are being offered for adoption at this time.
Cats and kittens are being accepted, and they are available for adoption, Williams said. The diseases do not affect felines.
“Recently, we’ve had several cases of parvo and distemper. We’ve had five positive cases of distemper and at least three or four cases of parvo,” she said.
Williams did not have the current number of dogs and cats now at the shelter, but said the facility was at or above capacity. The shelter is designed to house 150 dogs and cats.
The shelter did not have an alternative location Tuesday for people with dogs or puppies looking to drop the animals off.
“We’re looking into that to see what we can do,” Williams said.
“We’re asking people to hold on to what they have and as soon as we can do something, we will. You don’t want to expose the animals coming in that’s perfectly healthy.”
Williams stated she was checking possibilities for shelter in Beckley and in Tazewell County, Va. A large number of the shelter’s animals come from outside Mercer County.
“We want people to understand that we want to do our best to keep disease out of the community. We don’t want other people’s animals to be affected,” Williams said.
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Related Photos
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Baylieigh Lant pets a cat in the Mercer County Animal Shelter’s atrium on Tuesday. According to Lisa Williams, director of the shelter, no dogs can be adopted or dropped off at the shelter for at least two weeks due to a quarantine in the dog room. Staff photo by Eric DiNovo
Discussion
July 25, 2012
Mercer County Animal Shelter under quarantine after outbreak
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