Dallas Animal Shelter offers $150 in effort to relocate dogs vulnerable to flu
DALLAS (CBSDFW.COM) – A crisis in the Dallas Animal Shelter has led to an in unprecedented offer to encourage help from the public.
A flu strain that only infects canines has been detected in the adoption center where 150 dogs are housed.
Now, an urgent effort to clear the shelter comes with a financial incentive.
Flu season has been as hard on dogs this year as it has on humans.
A highly contagious canine influenza virus is appearing in North Texas for the first time and was recently found among the many dogs here at the Dallas Animal Shelter.
So shelter has only three days to relocate all of them from the adoption center.
"We realize it's a lofty goal to place 150 dogs in three days, but we are confident," said Dallas Animal Services Director MeLissa Webber.
Confident that an idea called 150 for 150 will encourage people to foster dogs for two weeks until the shelter can be decontaminated.
$150 gift cards will be awarded to those who temporarily take in larger, hard to adopt dogs that are at high risk for getting sick.
"That's a great incentive for people to take them home and really give them the love that they need and deserve," said Dallas resident Kate Bould, who is considering taking home a Great Pyrenees.
A couple from Rockwall decided to add a foster dog to the one they came here to adopt because of the gift card offer.
"I do think if someone is on the fence and they know about it, it's a good way to kick them over," said Rockwall resident Minnie Froese.
The shelter said that many as 28 people have taken advantage of the incentive already on Friday, which some plan to spend on their new best friend.
"We figured we would use it to buy a bed and toys and all the kind of things that she needs to make her feel comfortable," Froese said.
"We're really trying to be innovative and maximize life-saving," Webber said.
That means some dogs still remaining here after the weekend may have to be euthanized.
The appeal of cold hard cash is a new idea the shelter hopes will be the answer to find emergency housing, if these warm, loveable faces aren't enough.