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www.argnc.com
Saturday, March 1, 2008
Stokes' animal shelter is closed today for cleaning and painting
The Stokes County animal shelter is off of Sizemore
Road near Germanton. It will not be open to the public today.
(Journal File Photo)
By Lisa Boone-Wood
JOURNAL REPORTER
Stokes County officials are closing the county’s animal shelter to the public for the day in an effort to make the shelter cleaner and safer for animals.
The shelter off Sizemore Road near Germanton will be closed all day to be cleaned and painted, and to have sealant applied to the floors, officials said.
County officials are also considering the shelter’s euthanasia practices.
The Stokes shelter, which has been criticized by animal-rights advocates for using carbon-monoxide euthanasia, is making arrangements to offer training in lethal-injection euthanasia to employees, County Manager Bryan Steen said.
The N.C. Board of Agriculture adopted new euthanasia rules Feb. 13 that strictly govern the use of carbon-monoxide euthanasia.The rules still have to be approved by the state’s Rules Review Commission, but approval could come as early as April. Stokes wants to be prepared if the rules are adopted, Steen said.
Shelter officials are cleaning the shelter because some areas have had a rise in a new strain of parvovirus, a dog disease that attacks the gastrointestinal tract and is highly contagious, officials said.
They are planning to use a new cleaning substance called Nu-quat that will rid the shelter of parvo, Steen said. County officials have also ordered a high-powered steam machine to keep the shelter clean, he said.
“It’s also trying to enhance our infection-control program so that animals are unable to acquire or pass along infections from any other animals that are in the shelter,” Steen said. “This is a good time of the year because the calls haven’t started picking up from a natural birth cycle from these animals.
“If we didn’t do it now, we would probably have to delay it because of capacity issues until January or February of next year.”
Steen has met with town government officials throughout Stokes County. He has asked each town to consider encouraging spay and neuter programs and adopting animals from the county’s shelter with information sent out from the towns, he said.
County officials are also considering a policy that would require that any animal adopted from the county’s shelter be spayed or neutered before adoption to control the number of unwanted pets and reduce the need for euthanasia, Steen added.
“We’re trying to do our part to treat animals as well as we can in the circumstances that we’re dealing with,” Steen said.
¦ Lisa Boone-lboone-wood@wsjournal.com.
