BIG SPRING, Texas — Distemper. It's a disease that animal rescues, shelters and vets are well aware of, but not exactly everyone in the community of Big Spring. A case of Distemper has been confirmed at Big Spring's animal shelter, and multiple rescuers and the community believe they're not doing their part to stop the deadly disease from spreading.
But Big Spring’s head of the shelter, Chad Williams says they're taking the precautions necessary, "What is the protocol when you get that confirmed case of Distemper? Basically just sanitize the shelters as best as we can”.
But a former rescue worker at the shelter, Michelle Queen, argues sanitation isn't enough, “They need to close it down, they need to go in and disinfect it clean it out thoroughly and not bring any other dogs in". A step that Queen says is a pattern many shelters in our area don't take when they notice sickness, "I just know that things need to change. I know we need to build bigger shelters that way they have isolation when they come in they go straight to isolation and stay there for a certain amount of time."
Williams explained that animal shelters take a lot of risks with taking in any animal and that's just the reality of it, "With the shelter you're taking in animals that are stray and have Distemper is carried by wild animals a lot of the time such as raccoons and such".
Williams also noted Distemper can be tricky to catch as their incubation period can be anywhere from 1 to 5 weeks, "You know an animal can be in our shelter and be released and not show any signs of sickness at all and weeks later all of a sudden they've got the sickness."
A sticky situation that Queen says many rescuers and animal lovers are fighting for everyday. "They can't speak, they can't tell us. If only they could tell us we would hear hundreds and thousands of stories.We have to be their voice".
A responsibility Queen says will take shelters stepping up as well as the community, "So I just beg people get your animals spayed and neutered get them vaccinated because if you don't care about them don't get one."