PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — Seventy dogs from Philadelphia’s only open-intake shelter have been moved to another location, after exposure to an upper respiratory infection at the Hunting Park facility.
ACCT Philly had to act fast. They located a building in a former middle school in Tacony to house the dogs exposed to respiratory illness.
“We continue to see a spike recently there was a very big spike in the illnesses,” said ACCT Philly Interim Co-Executive Director Sarah Barnett.
“We saw a stronger strain of the virus called pneumovirus, which is highly contagious to dogs.”
Canine pneumovirus can often lead to canine infectious respiratory disease. The National Institutes of Health says that signs of the disease “range from nasal discharge and a dry cough to bronchopneumonia and, in severe cases, death.”
“Our veterinarian suggested and recommended that we do what is called a clean break, where you basically move all of the exposed animals,” said Barnett. “You basically clean the building, you start fresh and you move all of the animals out.”
Barnett hopes that the animals will be cleared to move back to the Hunting Park facility in two to three weeks.
“Our options were basically facing a summer of dogs continuing to get sick, exposing community dogs to this illness, as well as burdening rescues with the cost of treating [them],” Barnett said. She said the other option was to “move these animals out and get them healthy and get them back, so it doesn’t become worse.”
45 additional dogs have been medically cleared. They are currently at ACCT Philly where they are waiting to be adopted.
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“Our ideal scenario really is [to] continue to keep intake low at that facility,” said Barnett.
“Move these dogs back over and get them adopted quickly, or into foster placements and rescues. We really, really need people to adopt and foster these animals, and [for] rescue partners to take these dogs if they can.”
Other rescues are stepping up to assist, like the Brandywine Valley SPCA and the Pennsylvania SPCA.
Two of the 70 dogs exposed to the virus have been hospitalized. No dogs have died.