Rabies Outbreak at Local Animal Shelter

No-Kill Shelter Forced to Euthanize Over 40 Animals
by Valerie Strong
San Antonio Gazaette Staff Writer

BEXAR- This week tragedy struck on the northeast side.

An animal shelter is without any animals. Paws of Hope No-Kill rescue facility was forced to put down all the animals, save 2, within its walls. It was extreme circumstances that forced the small shelter to make such a difficult decision. Late afternoon on Tuesday, a vet tech was in one of the kennels refilling water bowls when a larger dog attacked her. The dog, a saint bernard, was known to have an extremely loving and gentle personality until the attack. The vet tech suffered only minor injuries, but in the following days, all the dogs began to show very aggressive tendencies. On Thursday morning, many began to froth at the mouth.

Thursday afternoon, the shelter put the dogs down. 42 dogs showed signs of infection and were euthanized.

The shelter owners are devastated, and utterly baffled as to how the rabies was contracted by the dogs. Two animals were spared, but remain under close supervision and quarantine until it can be verified that they are disease free. They have been symptom free for over two weeks now, and the shelter owners are praying that these two dogs remain to be a ray of hope in an otherwise horrific tragedy.

The shelter did not comment on if they would reopen their doors at this time.