{"id":122169,"date":"2025-08-05T23:51:10","date_gmt":"2025-08-05T23:51:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/122169\/"},"modified":"2025-08-05T23:51:10","modified_gmt":"2025-08-05T23:51:10","slug":"dallas-animal-services-limits-dog-intake-amid-distemper-outbreak","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/122169\/","title":{"rendered":"Dallas Animal Services limits dog intake amid distemper outbreak"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\" article <\/p>\n

DALLAS<\/strong> – Dallas Animal Services is limiting intake at its shelter due to a distemper outbreak.<\/p>\n

Testing is still underway to determine how widespread the outbreak is.<\/p>\n

\"\" <\/p>\n

What we know:<\/p>\n

Dallas Animal Services says it is only taking in dogs that are dangerous or critically ill.\u00a0<\/p>\n

As for other strays or would-be surrenders, they are asking the public to help with temporary housing.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Alexsey Dobberstine, the assistant general manager of medical at Dallas Animal Services, says so far eight dogs have tested positive for distemper.\u00a0<\/p>\n

She says they alerted recent adopters and fosters of the outbreak.<\/p>\n

“We are fully gowning up in each room, so if he goes into a room he will fully change before going into another room,” said Dobberstine.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\" <\/p>\n

“We’ve limited intake for a short period of time to allow us to take a clean break.”<\/p>\n

That means if someone calls to report a stray that is not dangerous or critically ill, the shelter will not pick it up.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“We are asking the public to understand that healthy strays and owner-surrenders need to be delayed for a short period while we create a safe environment,” she said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

What they’re saying:<\/p>\n

Tami Kukla, an animal advocate, has concerns about the shelter not picking up reported strays.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“When people call 311 they are told to leave the animal that is a concern,” said Kukla.<\/p>\n

Kukla says Dallas may lose the progress it made after Antoinette Brown was mauled by a pack of dogs in 2016.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\" <\/p>\n

That prompted non-profits to fund an extensive spay-neuter campaign.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“When you close intake, you are leaving all these dogs in the community and what is happening to them?” asked Kukla.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“I worry someone is going to get hurt.”<\/p>\n

Local perspective:<\/p>\n

On Monday evening, someone posted a photo of a dog tied to the side of Woodall Rodgers Freeway at Riverfront Boulevard.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The person commented that they could not get in contact with Dallas Animal Services.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\" <\/p>\n

“The response you get is it will be 72 hours, so it has to be escalated. Some of us emailed leadership at DAS City Hall. At 6:52 an officer was there. We were told they could not find the animal,” said Kukla.<\/p>\n

Kukla says she is also concerned that DAS stopped giving booster vaccines for distemper until recently.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“It used to be where animals would receive double vaccinations. Somehow that was changed that concern was raised multiple times fast-forward to the distemper outbreak,” he said.<\/p>\n

Dobberstine responded to the claim that double vaccinations for distemper have been changed.<\/p>\n

“We reinstituted it recently. When? When we had first case,” she said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Dobberstine says that was in June.\u00a0<\/p>\n

She is calling on the public to help take in strays during this time of limited intake.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“We encourage people to report them 311 so we can track where animals are, but we can’t pick them up unless there are a danger to themself or others.”<\/p>\n

\"\" <\/p>\n

What’s next:<\/p>\n

Dobberstine says if someone is able to take in a stray, they can still bring it here to Dallas Animal Services to get its vaccinations.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Dogs at the shelter are still safe to adopt as long as you can quarantine the dog, and your other dogs at home are vaccinated.<\/p>\n

The Source:<\/b> Information in this article was provided by FOX 4’s Lori Brown.<\/p>\n

Pets and Animals<\/a>Dallas<\/a>Dallas County<\/a> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"article DALLAS – Dallas Animal Services is limiting intake at its shelter due to a distemper outbreak. Testing…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":122170,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5135],"tags":[5229,1596,7290,50,8047,358,3187,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":{"0":"post-122169","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-dallas","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-dallas","10":"tag-dallas-county","11":"tag-news","12":"tag-pets-animals","13":"tag-texas","14":"tag-tx","15":"tag-united-states","16":"tag-united-states-of-america","17":"tag-unitedstates","18":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","19":"tag-us","20":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/114978847785641279","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/122169","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=122169"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/122169\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/122170"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=122169"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=122169"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=122169"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}