Scout is a young, mixed-breed dog that was fostered by Katie and her daughter through a Denver-area animal rescue. Katie was told that the dog would be vaccinated and spayed prior to adoption, but that didn’t happen. Once Katie decided to adopt Scout, she reminded the rescue that the pup still needed to be vaccinated and spayed. Despite assurance that it would happen, it didn’t. Sadly, Scout developed Parvo, which could have been prevented had the rescue followed through.

Katie is undergoing a difficult time in her personal life and adopted Scout to help her daughter cope with those major changes. Katie did everything correctly – asking repeatedly for vaccines from the rescue, getting Scout to an emergency clinic when she fell ill, then getting Scout transferred to a day clinic where she was hospitalized and underwent further treatment. The good news is Scout pulled through and was released home late last week. The bad news is this should never have happened.

Reputable animal welfare organizations should be vaccinating and spaying or neutering foster animals as soon as they are old enough and definitely prior to being adopted out. This particular rescue has been reported to the Department of Agriculture, which oversees and regulates Pet Animal Care Facilities (PACFA) license. The rescue has not returned my phone call requesting more info, nor have they responded to repeated calls from Katie. While we hate to see this sort of thing happen and hope it was an isolated incident, organizations that do not follow disease prevention protocol are endangering the very lives they have vowed to save.