AUSTIN, Texas — There are growing concerns that more dogs and cats will be euthanized because of the screwworm outbreak in Texas.
As of Monday, there are 15 confirmed New World screwworm cases in the United States, 14 of them are in Texas.
“Pets are going to start dying immediately in shelters because they can’t leave the state through the normal lifeline,” said Dr. Ellen Jefferson, a veterinarian and President and CEO of Austin Pets Alive!
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More than 20,000 dogs and cats in animal shelters are transported out of state from Texas every year. But the screwworm outbreak has some states now refusing to take Texas rescues and shelter animals.
One example is a young dog named Paul. He was abandoned in South Texas. The rural shelter there could not take care of Paul because there was no veterinarian on staff. The solution was to transport the malnourished dog to Austin Pets Alive!
“He was in such bad condition he needed a blood transfusion,” said Dr. Ellen Jefferson, a veterinarian and President and CEO of Austin Pets Alive! “He needed to go on a refeeding diet because he was clearly starving to death. He is just starting to get his strength back now.”
The longtime shelter veterinarian says Austin Pets Alive! is a lifeline for animals across Texas.
“We operate by taking animals, almost every day, from the 200 shelters that we are working on, and we send a lot of those up to the northern states. That is how we save lives and implement no kill in Texas. All of that is in jeopardy right now,” said Dr. Jefferson.
The state’s screwworm outbreak pushed New York, Pennsylvania, and Florida to enact emergency bans on shelter animals from Texas. Concerns about the spread of the flesh-eating parasite have other states requiring strict health certificates. The restrictions are creating a dire situation for already crowded Texas animal shelters.
The cost of screwworm medications is also straining the budgets of many animal shelters.
“For the 5,000 doses of our monthly preventative, it is going to cost us around $70,000,” said Rebecca Giamona, Asst. Medical Care Director at Austin Pets Alive!
Austin Pets Alive! says the top priority now is to prevent the ban on importing Texas rescues and shelter animals from spreading to more states.
“There are reasonable ways to prevent screwworm from entering. You do not have to have a complete ban that costs the lives of beautiful dogs like this,” said Dr. Jefferson.
California and Delaware are two more states that have strict new controls on importing shelter and rescue dogs and cats from Texas.