Win32 Virus Removal

By Jeff Burnside

Miami-Dade County's animal shelter was still not accepting new arrivals of unwanted dogs and cats Tuesday night because the cleaning and sanitizing against deadly Distemper and Parvo viruses has expanded.

“Our cleaning project in the old part of the shelter turned into a major renovation,” said Animal Services Director Dr. Sara Pizano. “We’re trying to improve the way we sanitize the shelter.”

Even though the shelter was emptied March 24th of dogs exposed to the viruses, other dogs being brought to the shelter by lost animal trucks are infected too, highlighting a bigger problem: Too few pet owners are getting their dogs vaccinated as required by law.

"It looks like he's going to make it...." said Dr. Joy Carter of the Doral Animal Centre. She’s talking about Dinky, a scruffy lovable dog shivering nervously in a stainless steel cage and an IV just above her paw.

Dinky’s owners didn't get the $25 vaccination or the annual booster shots a while back. So now Dinky's fighting to survive Parvo.

"And not only are they deadly to the pets, but are very costly to the owners,” says Dr. Carter. “You're looking at thousands of dollars sometimes to treat some of these diseases. And then you don't even know if the pets are going to make it or not."

The recent Parvo and Distemper crisis at the Miami-Dade shelter forced the fast removal of hundreds of dogs. Despite so much effort by staff and rescue groups, many dozens have surely died anyway.

The shelter normally gets 100-150 new animals every single day of the year. It takes only a few of those to arrive with the viruses.

"Animals come to the shelter, they look normal, and they have an incubation period during which time they don't have signs, they wouldn't test positive,” says Dr. Pizano. “And they can infect other animals." Shelter policy is to vaccinate newly-arriving dogs and cats that appear adoptable. Critics contend those vaccinations aren’t always given as quickly as policy requires.

Parvo and Distemper are highly contagious, say veterinarians. The virus can live for weeks or months on a blade of grass touched by an infected dog.

Jessica Melgar brings her vaccinated dogs to the county’s dog park at Amelia Earhart Park. "I love them very dearly,” she says.

Miami-Dade County has strict penalties for failing to vaccinate your pets. But the compliance rate, already among the lowest in the country, drops even further during a down economy.

Petra is an English Bulldog puppy in the lobby of the Doral Animal Centre. She found a new home yesterday. And already, her new owners are playing it safe.

"We give her all the vaccinations and everything,” says owner Francisco Rivera.

"With pets, just like children,” says Dr. Carter while examining Petra and then returning to care for Dinky, “it's a moral obligation to keep these pets healthy."