The Minnesota Board of Animal Health has cleared the Woodbury Animal Humane Society location to reopen Monday after a closure of over three weeks caused by a dog flu outbreak.
A canine influenza outbreak closed all three of society’s Twin Cities locations on April 6. All 70 animals formerly at the Woodbury location have been transferred to Golden Valley, where they will remain quarantined.
The Woodbury location was deep-cleaned and is ready to provide limited services, the society announced on its website. The facility will open with intake services and education and training programs.
Priority will be given to surrender appointments that were canceled due to the outbreak. After that, the facility will begin accepting new surrender appointments.
The facility expects to be able to reopen its adoption center with animals from new local intakes as early as May 9.
The Golden Valley and Coon Rapids locations will remain closed until the dogs have recovered and are no longer contagious.
The Minnesota Board of Animal Health said in a release Wednesday that there were signs of dog flu community spread in the Twin Cities. They suggest that owners keep sick pets at home and avoid direct dog-to-dog contact with recently boarded dogs or dogs from other households.
The Humane Society said nearly 200 dogs were receiving treatment for dog flu symptoms as of April 10, and that symptoms usually diminish after about eight days. It provided medication and care for adopted dogs that may have been exposed or infected while in the shelters.
The Humane Society’s “Walk for Animals” event Saturday at the State Fairgrounds will take place without pets to reduce flu spread.
