74 dogs killed in disease outbreak

CARTHAGE, Mo.-- A disease outbreak at a Carthage animal shelter has led to the killing of 74 dogs.

The Missouri Department of Agriculture on Friday lifted a quarantine it had placed the day before on the Carthage Humane Society animal shelter after finding a number of dogs there sick with parvo and other diseases.

Shelter director David Butler said his staff killed all of the dogs except for seven that had been brought to the shelter through Carthage animal control programs. Regulations require him to wait seven days to see if the dogs' owners reclaim them.

The illnesses didn't affect cats and horses also being held at the shelter.

Jerry Eber, a state veterinarian, said the shelter would be able to reopen next week.

Eber said agriculture inspectors stopped by the shelter Thursday after getting calls from people worried about the number of sick dogs.

Shelter volunteer Amy Silvers said she didn't call the department but said she was glad something was being done.

She and fellow volunteer, Tracy Mock, said the shelter doesn't separate the sick and dying animals from the healthy ones and doesn't regularly disinfect the areas where sick dogs are kept.

Shelter officials also said they will vaccinate more dogs brought to the shelter in the future. The shelter generally takes in between 50 and 60 animals a week and kills about 40 a week.

Butler said the shelter didn't have enough money to vaccinate all the dogs brought into the shelter and had focused on vaccinating the younger dogs and animals thought more likely to be adopted. However, the shelter didn't have enough space to keep the vaccinated ones from mixing with the unvaccinated and sick dogs.

"We have limited funds," he said. "People want us to save all the dogs. I wish we could."

He said he didn't know if any of the dogs adopted out in recent weeks were infected with parvo or the other diseases but asked owners to contact the shelter if their animals became ill.

Eber said many shelters face similar problems, especially when they're taking in a lot of stray animals. Besides Carthage, the shelter accepts animals from Hollister, Ozark, Crane and other neighborhoods.

"What happened here is not unique, and none of this would be happening if people would spay and neuter their dogs," he said.

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Information from: The Joplin Globe, http://www.joplinglobe.com