Shortly after Karla Ross adopted Teddy, a Mini Pinscher and Dachshund mix, from the Franklin County Dog Shelter, she noticed him sneezing and coughing up clear mucus.
Ross adopted Teddy for her daughter, who has a difficult time with anxiety, in hopes he would provide her with companionship. She picked him up from the shelter last Tuesday, September 6, six days after another shelter dog was euthanized for showing signs of distemper, an airborne, incurable and often-fatal canine disease.
In the following days, more dogs started to show signs of the disease, and the shelter opted to close last Friday, September 9. Over the weekend 52 dogs were euthanized and more have been quarantined for showing signs of distemper.
Franklin County residents criticize the shelter for euthanizing the dogs before testing all of them, but Luke Westerman, from Citizens For Shelter Reform, Advocates for Franklin County Dog Shelter Dogs and Animal Cruelty Taskforce of Ohio, said the real problem is the window of time between the first dog being euthanized for the disease and the shelter announcing the outbreak to the public.
“During the eight days following August 31, 2016, from distemper outbreak discovery to the distemper outbreak announcement, hundreds of Franklin County citizens came and went from the Franklin County Dog Shelter,” Westerman said in a press release. “Throughout this period, the Franklin County Dog Shelter continued to intake dogs, and adopt out dogs, without informing the public of the potentially dangerous conditions at the facility.”
Westerman said shelter administration and county officials told him the shelter was actually aware of the distemper contamination on September 2, not September 3, as reported. He said emails had been sent between shelter administration and county officials days before the situation was made public. 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.
On September 4, one of these sales ended in over 100 dog adoptions.
“These were all dogs exposed to distemper. These were all dogs that were in the same ward, breathing the same air as the dog that was euthanized for distemper,” Westerman said. “The incubation period on this can be weeks. So, basically what I’m saying is that hundreds of dogs were moved after they knew that there was distemper, and the community now has these dogs.”
He said families probably have dogs infected with the virus mixing with their other dogs. They might be showing signs of distemper already, but they also might not. It’s with this information that Westerman believes the shelter euthanized far more than the 52 dogs it reported.
He heard claims from insiders that anywhere from 50 to more than 200 dogs were euthanized over the entire weekend, and that the number reported by the shelter is only for the dogs euthanized on Friday.
“We had people that were at the shelter yesterday [Sunday] looking in the windows, and they noticed entire wards that were empty, for one,” Westerman said. “We also know from several folks on the inside, yesterday alone there was staff carrying out dozens and dozens of dead dogs in body bags.”
A press release from the shelter that came out Monday reported the same number of dogs euthanized that was reported Friday — 52. 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.
County Commissioners released their own statement acknowledging the situation and their attempts to address it.
“Additionally, the Board, County Administration, and Director Winstel are launching, in consultation with these experts, a comprehensive review of existing infectious disease protocols to ensure that Franklin County is still in line with the nation’s best practices,” the statement said.
Neither statements addressed the potential risk recently adopted dogs might pose to dogs already owned by Franklin County residents. Some dog owners have taken to social media, but since the incubation period could take weeks, the more severe symptoms of distemper — fever, vomiting, diarrhea, loss of appetite and depression — might take a while to show.
“Luckily Teddy does not have any of those symptoms. He is approximately five years old, so he could have had a distemper vaccine at some point in his past…but we don’t know for sure,” Ross said. “For the time being, our vet has given us two different antibiotics to treat Teddy as if he has a severe respiratory infection. Obviously we are anxiously awaiting an official diagnosis and have been told his blood test results should be back anytime now.”