As Texas communities continue to recover from floods, Best Friends Animal Society is actively engaged with local shelters and rescue groups to help relocate pets to safety. The organization is focused on moving adoptable animals that were in shelters before the floods, creating space for shelters to prioritize lost and displaced pets. This allows shelters in Texas to devote time and resources to finding temporary homes for these pets while working to reunite them with their families.
The Fredericksburg SPCA is a partner of Best Friends. Local workers arrived in Richmond to accept six dogs and six cats. However, the SPCA tells us on the morning of the transport, a kitten at the SPCA tested positive for feline panleukopenia, a highly contagious disease with a mortality rate of up to 90% in unvaccinated kittens.
“Kitten season means hundreds of vulnerable, unvaccinated, and fragile lives in need of urgent care coming to our doors. Illness is, unfortunately, inevitable in animal sheltering.” said Kathleen Daley-Becker, Animal Care Manager for the Fredericksburg SPCA. “Our
trained staff takes every precaution to respond quickly and contain outbreaks with contact tracing and isolation.”
As Fredericksburg SPCA staff arrived at the airport to meet the Wings of Rescue flight in Richmond, they were notified that the entire shelter would be placed under a precautionary 14-day quarantine for cats.
“No cats in, no cats out,” says Von Young, Director of Communications at the Fredericksburg SPCA. “This situation highlights how animal rescue truly requires a collaborative effort. The day-to-day is constantly evolving and filled with problem-solving challenges. We’re grateful for our national partners like Best Friends, who helped get the animals here, as well as local groups like Squishy Face Crew, to whom we were able to transport the cats due to our unexpected quarantine.”
Feline Panleukopenia is not transmissible to dogs, so the dog adoption areas at the Fredericksburg SPCA will remain open. In the meantime, the shelter is urgently requesting
assistance with the following:
● Please do not bring found cats or kittens to the shelter. For guidance on what to do with found kittens, visit fredspca.org/kitten.
● If you need kitten supplies, training materials, or referral lists for other shelters and rescues, please email [email protected].
● Monetary donations are always appreciated to help support care, the shelter is also in need of item donations, including cat and kitten food, disposable litter boxes, and feeding trays.
fredspca.org Photos courtesy Fredericksburg SPCA
