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Animal shelter closed due to deadly disease to reopen, pending blood tests

By Greg Suskin, wsoctv.com
By Greg Suskin, wsoctv.com

LANCASTER, S.C. — Almost a month after distemper killed four dogs at the Lancaster County Animal Shelter, officials are awaiting new blood test results on thirty remaining dogs there.

Distemper is a respiratory illness that can be fatal.

[ARTICLE: Lancaster Animal Shelter closed after virus kills 2 animals]

It's airborne and easily spread from animal to animal, and that's why in early May, the shelter shut down and stopped accepting new animals from the public, or adopting them out.

The staff at the shelter
was so concerned about spreading the disease, they moved out into the parking lot for weeks until the building was disinfected repeatedly.

Now, the dogs are still being housed outside until they know for certain that none of them are sick.

"If a dog's showing positive (for illness) and we put them back in here, and we bring other dogs back in here, we're going have the same thing all over again," shelter director Alan Williams said.

That's why the shelter has spent much of its budget making sure that when the animals return, they'll be well, and the rooms they live in will be safe.

Crews replaced and sealed the floors.

A new coat of paint is still in the works.

Plastic doors in the kennels that tended to collect grime have been replaced with stainless steel, which makes them easier to keep clean.

Old mops and brooms were tossed as well.

Lancaster County has spent $10,500 on the new floor, roughly $5,000 more on paint, equipment, cleaning and new doors for the kennels.

The shelter is considering a request for another $50,000 to install a clean air system to combat germs.

"That will kill anything that gets in here," Williams said.

A veterinarian at the University of Florida agreed to lab test the dogs for free, saving the county about $7,000.

The animals are checked daily to ensure they show no signs of illnesses.

Half of them have already been spoken for by rescue groups planning to take them.

No additional animals have been put down.

"We want to make sure they are healthy and not euthanized, any of them, if we don't have to," Williams said.

In the last month, animal control officers have not been bringing in stray animals unless they are a danger to the community, because there's been no place to house them without the risk of infection.

The Lancaster County Animal Shelter took in 2,854 animals in the fiscal year from July 1 until the shutdown.

There have been 1,596 animals that were either adopted out or taken by rescues or foster homes.

Depending on the test results, the shelter could reopen to the public on Tuesday following the Memorial Day holiday.

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