Suffolk animal shelter reopens after changes

SUFFOLK

Suffolk Animal Control reopened its shelter Monday morning after closing for more than two weeks because of its worst parvovirus outbreak in at least a decade.

Trays of bleach stood at most corners and doorways, put there to clean the bottoms of shoes. Dogs barked and sniffed from two sections of kennels - those ready for adoption and those still under observation.

Animal control is segregating all new arrivals for at least 10 days. They'll also be vaccinated at intake rather than during weekly visits from the shelter veterinarian. Some did not get shots until just prior to adoption.

All shelter workers will be certified to administer the vaccines by today, said Chief Animal Control Officer Meghann Chapin, a change that was in the works before the outbreak.

The shelter will also no longer house litters of puppies until at least after they have been vaccinated. Th ey are going into foster care instead, as they are especially susceptible to parvo, Chapin said.

The disease is spread among dogs through contact with feces and vomit, but it does not infect people, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Dogs now will be tested for the virus before they're released to new owners.

Suffolk police Maj. Larry Wilson said the changes were made after consulting the shelter veterinarian and the state veterinarian's office.

"The kennel has had parvo before and we've addressed it," Wilson said. "I'm not sure we've ever experienced it to this level."

Fourteen dogs at the facility were euthanized.

Two dozen dogs with parvo were euthanized at the Virginia Beach pound earlier this year. Another 15 were put down because of space constraints.

When the Suffolk shelter opened Monday morning, it was nearly full. Dogs weren't going out during the closure, but they continued to come in.

The facility closed to the public June 27, two days after it was notified that a puppy adopted from there tested positive for parvo.

One dog was released June 26 after the shelter knew about a possible parvo problem but before it was closed.

Stephanie and Nathan Burks are the owners of that dog, a 5-month-old Boxer mix. The couple, who live in Chesapeake, already had two dogs and weren't looking for another. They discovered the Boxer mix at Animal Control while there to see a dog Stephanie's mother had adopted.

They called her Zoe.

The Burkses say no one at the shelter alerted them about the parvo cases when they picked her up, nor were they contacted later.

The couple said they would have taken her regardless - but would have gone to a vet right away instead of exposing their other two dogs.

"We were already attached to her at that point," Stephanie Burks said.

Zoe quickly grew sick, and the Burkses said they spent more than $1,200 on her care over the next week. Last Friday, she snuggled next to Nathan Burks on the couch after nosing her toys around the living room.

"No one felt it necessary to attempt to notify us whatsoever. That was my biggest disappointment," he said.

That, said Wilson, "is something we could look at."

But he hopes they won't have to.

"The likelihood of one leaving with parvo would be extremely remote," he said.

Kristin Davis, (757) 222-5555, kristin.davis@pilotonline.com