The Gwinnett County Animal Shelter will be closed for at least four days after one dog died and several others contracted an unknown illness, officials announced Friday.
Cpl. Michele Pihera — a spokeswoman for the Gwinnett County Police Department, which oversees the county’s animal control efforts — said in a news release that the shelter was closed to the public at 2 p.m. Friday and “will remain this way until further notice.”
“In the past two weeks,” Pihera said, “dogs at the Gwinnett County Animal Shelter have been getting very ill, very rapidly. The dogs were happy and playful one day and the next day they appeared extremely sick.”
The release said one dog has died “as what appears to be a result of the illness” while five others have shown signs of the same illness. The University of Georgia’s College of Veterinary Medicine has been contacted to determine the exact nature of the sickness.
The testing will take at least four days, Pihera said. During that time, and possibly longer, no dogs will be allowed to enter or exit the shelter.
Despite not knowing exactly what the illness is, officials said it does not affect humans or any other types of animals. While the nearly 150 dogs currently at the shelter will be quarantined, cats housed at the shelter will be released to an animal rescue group on Saturday, Pihera said.
“The shelter is busy contacting every adopter, owner reclaim and every rescue that has taken an animal in the last two weeks,” Pihera said. “These people will be asked to keep their dogs separated from all their other dogs in the home. If their newly adopted dog or reclaimed dog begins to show any of the symptoms mentioned above, the director recommends that the owner take it to the veterinarian immediately.”
In the past two weeks, the shelter has seen 52 dogs adopted, 41 picked up from a rescue group and 41 reclaimed by their owners.
Pihera said the quarantine was not state mandated but decided upon by the shelter’s director, Chip Moore.
Anyone with questions is asked to email the shelter at animalwelfare@gwinnettcounty.com.
Pihera said the shelter was last shut down “approximately seven years ago” during an outbreak of the Parvo virus.
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