The Susquehanna SPCA is reopening Tuesday after taking in puppies that were positive for parvovirus late last month.
The organization had closed its Cooperstown facilities to prevent the spread of the virus but is now resuming normal business hours and reopening its cat areas. The dog areas will remain closed to the public.
Stacie Haynes, the executive director of Susquehanna SPCA, says they made the call to reopen after the puppies improved and the virus was contained.
“We are at this point feeling confident that all of the dogs in our care are headed in a positive direction,” Haynes said. “They’re all making improvements, and so we feel like we’re able to keep the part of the building that the dogs are in really well contained.”
The Susquehanna SPCA took the 16 puppies from a home in Schoharie County and treated them at facilities in Latham and Cooperstown. 11 of those puppies are still alive.
One puppy named Lady is still being treated for secondary pneumonia at a veterinarian in Latham. She is having problems breathing, but her condition is improving. Haynes says they plan to move her to Cooperstown this week.
“It’s been a very, very rough couple of weeks since this happened, but we finally feel like we’re on the positive side, and we’re just going to keep seeing improvements,” Haynes said. “We feel like we’ve gotten through the critical period.”
Haynes said the puppies will be up for adoption in about two weeks because their previous owners willingly surrendered them.
The Schoharie County Sheriff's Office also seized four horses, five chickens, 31 birds, nine cats and 12 adult dogs from the same home. Because those animals weren’t willingly surrendered, Haynes says the Susquehanna SPCA won’t be able to place them in new homes until legal proceedings play out over the course of six months to a year. The animals will remain in the care of the Susquehanna SPCA until then.
One of the adult dogs was positive for parvovirus but is improving.
Haynes said community members have donated time, money and supplies to support the rescued animals. The Susquehanna SPCA has recruited volunteers to wear PPE and play with the puppies to socialize them during a “critical period” in their development.
“We’ve just been incredibly fortunate that the folks in this region care about animals, especially animals in need,” Haynes said.
The Schoharie County Sheriff’s Office is still investigating the incident.
