GUADALUPE COUNTY, Texas – Guadalupe County Animal Services will no longer accept stray animals because of a parvovirus outbreak sweeping through the county’s animal shelter that has led to the euthanasia of at least 45 dogs.
In a Wednesday statement, the Guadalupe County Sheriff’s Office said 47 dogs in all were euthanized over a three-week span.
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However, the first two dogs were euthanized “for reasons unrelated to the outbreak,” but the other 45 dogs all tested positive for the virus. Other dogs, who were previously vaccinated for the parvovirus, still contracted the disease.
Deputies said the county’s animal shelter will be closed to new animals whenever it reaches capacity. The facility has 33 kennels but doesn’t have a dedicated space for animals to be placed in quarantine.
In an attempt to avoid euthanizing animals, the sheriff’s office said the shelter “has regularly held dogs well beyond capacity,” but it believes the overcrowded shelter has been a factor in the spread of the current parvovirus outbreak.
According to deputies, the Guadalupe County Humane Society has also dealt with its own recent parvovirus outbreak amongst multiple dogs.
The Guadalupe County Humane Society, which is not affiliated with the county, has also euthanized dogs in response to the outbreak, GCSO said. It is unclear how many dogs at that facility were euthanized.
What is parvovirus?
According to the National Institutes of Health, parvovirus can cause hemorrhagic enteritis (Acute Hemorrhagic Diarrhea Syndrome) and myocarditis (heart inflammation). The agency said the virus is a “very common problem of canines and is a huge killer of puppies.”
Mortality rates for the virus are at approximately 10% among adult dogs and 91% in puppies, the NIH said.
The ‘ultimatum’
While there were “underlying tensions and issues” at the shelter, Guadalupe County Sheriff Joshua Ray said the county has allocated resources to improve animal services.
However, Ray said GCSO’s fractured “historical relationships” with “local animal advocates” has caused the sheriff’s office to take drastic action.
“This led me to a difficult decision in January. I gave the (Guadalupe County) Commissioners Court an ultimatum: if they did not make changes or find an alternative solution, I would close the shelter October 1, 2026,” Ray said in the statement. “I did not want to make this decision. But it is the only tool at my disposal to force the court to make meaningful change.”
The sheriff also said that if county commissioners believe an animal shelter is necessary for residents, the commissioners “should provide it separate from the Sheriff’s Office.”
“The Sheriff’s Office has no objection to continuing oversight of animal services officers engaged in direct enforcement throughout the county,” Ray said in the news release.
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