Aging Beach animal shelter harbors deadly dog virus

VIRGINIA BEACH

The city's old and rundown animal shelter has become a harbor for a highly contagious and deadly virus that so far has forced the euthanization of 24 dogs.

Cracks in the shelter's floors and walls and its many porous surfaces can trap the virus, called parvo, which is spread through feces. That makes it tough to eradicate with disinfectant, said Daniel Kovich, a state veterinarian who visited the shelter earlier this month.

The condition of the 1974 shelter did not cause the initial February outbreak but has made it harder to fight, likely helped it spread and could lead to further outbreaks, officials said.

The city has set aside $2.85 million to buy land for and design a new shelter. However, a site has not been chosen, and there is no money for construction. The building is estimated to cost as much as $20 million.

"This is a sick building," said Elaine Swarts, an animal rescue volunteer who's pushing the city to build a new shelter.

State inspectors cited the shelter twice in the p ast year for its rundown condition. The most recent warning, in November, came three months before the parvo outbreak.

The report said the cinder-block-and-concrete shelter suffers from "overall structural deterioration that has resulted in cracked, chipped, porous and rusted surfaces throughout the facility. This impedes adequate disinfection."

City officials responded with a letter in December that said the problem will be fixed with the construction of a new shelter.

In addition to structural deterioration, the facility's antiquated design doesn't allow animals and their waste to be separated properly, J.E. Ballance, a shelter supervisor, said on a tour of the building on Wednesday. A trough runs behind dog kennels that workers hose down to clean out feces and urine, and as a result sick dogs could contaminate healthy ones. The kennels are separated by chain-link fences, which allows additional contact.

There are 135 animals at the shelter now, including 96 dogs, 33 of which are in quarantine for two weeks to see if they develop parvo symptoms. The shelter, on Leroy Road, is partially open. The shelter handled about 3,500 dogs last year, according to state records.

Because the virus can live up to a year on inanimate objects, the condition of the building means another outbreak is possible, acknowledged Wayne Gilbert, a spokesman for the Police Department, which runs the shelter.

Parvo, which has no cure, causes vomiting and bloody diarrhea, killing dogs swiftly through dehydration.

The contamination has given ammunition to animal proponents, such as Swarts, who want city officials to move faster to build a new shelter.

"They can't sterilize it the way it needs to be done," she said. "They can scrub and scrub all they want, but they're not killing it."

A plan to pay for a new shelter with animal registration fees has not generated nearly as much money as expected.

"Council is going to have to find another source of revenue," City Manager Jim Spore said. He called the current shelter "totally inadequate."

Animal control officers impounded a stray dog from the Indian Lakes neighborhood on Feb. 16. The 2 -year-old blond Pomeranian was put in a general small-dog pen. It first showed signs of the virus on Feb. 19, officials said, and died at a veterinary clinic the next day.

The virus spread, and 24 other dogs that either tested positive for the virus or were suspected of being infected were euthanized.

Kovich, the state veterinarian, said the shelter is in bad shape but is "by no means horrible."

"It's approaching the end of its useful life," he said. "There are certainly going to be more issues, absolutely."

Aaron Applegate, (757) 222-5122, aaron.applegate@pilotonline.com