ACPR on parvo hold for two weeks

OTHELLO — The Adams County Pet Rescue has been forced to shut down for two weeks after a fully vaccinated dog came down with canine parvovirus, known as parvo. The shelter cannot accept any dogs or adopt any dogs out until Nov. 2.

“To have it shut down for two weeks, that's income that’s not coming in and dogs that aren't getting homes,” ACPR Director Kyya Grant said.

Parvo is a highly contagious virus that can be deadly for dogs, according to the American Veterinary Medical Association. ACPR staff have had to isolate the affected dog and minimize the possibility of the virus spreading.

“We keep an eye out on the dogs for symptoms,” Grant said. “There's parvo in our area. So walking in off the street can bring parvo into our lobby and so we can take that back (to the dogs). It's a daily thing we have to deal with … We use the best possible disinfectants that we can, it just happens.”

ACPR staff check dogs’ stools every day and watch for other symptoms to catch the virus early, which Grant said they were able to do this time.

“I’m pretty confident it won't spread, because everybody here has been here a long time, everybody's vaccinated,” Grant said. “We only have a few dogs that have one vaccine in them.”

ACPR can never predict or completely prevent parvo since it is so easily spread. Grant said the ACPR has been out of operation due to parvo in the facility for a total of ten weeks in the last year.

“We are losing out on going to an adoption event this weekend, and the following weekend,” Grant said. “We've already had them set up, we had the dogs ready to go … we have to cancel those.”

ACPR drives animals to these events in outdated vehicles with hundreds of thousands of miles, an example of equipment and infrastructure in need of repair or updating that has been pushed off as ACPR tries simply to cover their expenses.

“It makes a big difference, you know, any chance we can to promote these dogs and get them adopted,” Grant said.

The parvo hold also lowers morale, Grant said.

“We just come to a standstill, basically, and it's something that we can't control,” she said. “We can control our cleanliness, we’re disinfecting as much as possible, but we can't control what comes in off the street.”

The job operates in a high-stress environment, and Grant said morale was low even before the parvo hold.

“We can't even pay our staff the equivalent of Walmart and McDonald’s wages, and we have no benefits,” she said. “You have barking, you have sick animals, you have stress. I mean, it's overwhelming for these guys and for them to hang in there, you know, they impress me a lot. It's hard work, and I would love to be able to pay them more.”

ACPR cannot even lighten the load by transferring animals to other facilities. Many nearby facilities ask daily for ACPR to take on animals as well, Grant said.

“All of those shelters that we transfer to we're fighting, you know, 40 other shelters trying to transfer the same amount of dogs,” she said. “I sent a list of over a hundred dogs out to quite a few shelters a week and a half ago. Nobody's responded. I mean, they just can't take in more dogs.”

Grant said she even reached out to shelters in Canada, with no luck.

The ACPR met with Othello Mayor Shawn Logan on Thursday to discuss their ongoing contract negotiation, and Grant said the ACPR also has a meeting with the Adams County Commissioners on Tuesday to discuss ACPR’s situation. Grant said that no commissioners or Othello City Council members have toured the ACPR facility as of yet.

“We are trying as hard as we can to move these dogs, to bring in donations, to get dogs adopted and we are battling this. Too many dogs, not enough adopters. It's tough.”

Gabriel Davis may be reached at gdavis@columbiabasinherald.com. Download the Columbia Basin Herald app on iOS and Android.