Bonnie Hays Dog Adoptions Closed Until Monday

For Immediate Release: Thursday, April 19, 2012

Adoptions of dogs continue to wait until infections subside. See updated media release.

On Thursday afternoon, the Bonnie L. Hays Small Animal Shelter temporarily closed down its dog adoption program. Several dogs in the shelter have developed an upper respiratory infection.

“When dogs are housed close to each other, infections can carry easily from dog-to-dog. This is a lot like several children in a classroom all coming down with a virus at the same time. We expect all the dogs to get well quickly, but until we’re confident that we understand how long the infection will last and make sure we’re treating the dogs effectively, we think it’s prudent to keep everyone with us for a while,” says Deborah Wood, manager of Animal Services for Washington County.

The shelter is taking full precautions to reduce spread of the infection, including isolating dogs with symptoms from other animals, doing a specialized disinfecting regimen, and ensuring that there is no cross-contamination as staff go from one dog to another.

The Bonnie Hays shelter will continue to accept stray dogs and cats and return stray dogs and cats to their owners during this time.

The cat adoption program will remain open, since cats have not been affected by this virus.

The dog adoption program is expected to reopen on Monday, April 23, depending on how the animals are doing. “Once we open back up, we’re hoping to have a lot of adopters coming to adopt the dogs that will be waiting for their forever homes,” says Wood. “Because the dogs will have been here longer than normal, they will be especially grateful to go to wonderful new homes.”