It sucks, sucks, sucks.
It's the reality of infectious disease in a shelter situation. You must have a different mindset when dealing with many animals in close quarters where infectious disease is spread rapidly. I'm not sure what kind of veterinary support this particular shelter had, if any. Sadly, many of them don't which is why UC Davis has a
Shelter Medicine Program to train veterinarians and hopefully prevent horrible things like this happening in the future. Having seen and treated both canine parvovirus and feline panleukopenia (they're both the same type of virus, just species specific), they're awful diseases and if these animals were truly suffering, it was probably a kind thing to do. I personally think that just euthanizing them after 72 hours if they don't find a home isn't going to solve their problems. There are other no kill shelters that succeed (there's one here in Sacramento). It's a matter of having a population medicine mindset - don't introduce new animals to the general population, fully clean kennels between animals, etc. Arg, I've ranted enough. I hope to God they're getting some good advice.
R.I.P. all you dogs and cats.
