Griffith City Council has completed its investigation into the death of a dog at the pound last week.
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“There is no evidence to suggest that the animal in question was suffering from parvovirus,” council’s general manager Brett Stonestreet wrote in the report.
Dog rescue organisation Needy Paws last week posted on their Facebook page about the incident. “A lonely death,” the post said, “without vet attention in a freezing pound.”
The Facebook post also claimed there were “sprays and pools of blood in the cage.”
Following the death Griffith City Pound was closed while an investigation was undertaken.
A council report on the incident found the dog was collected by council rangers from a property at Yenda where the dog had eaten a large number of raw salamis which had been recently prepared.
An assessment of the dog when it was received at the pound found it to be happy and healthy looking.
On Tuesday July 22, six days after impoundment, the council compliance officer on duty reported the dog was eating well and appeared to be in good condition.
Later that day a Needy Paws representative attended the pound with another person and saw the dog in its cage. The compliance officer said the dog wasn’t looking its normal self and the person from Needy Paws asked if there was blood in the cage. The compliance officer didn’t think it was blood, but dark-coloured urine.
In an email to Griffith City Council’s manager of executive services Shireen Donaldson from Needy Paws’ Ken Rebetzke, which was later posted on Needy’s Paws’ Facebook page, Mr Rebetzke wrote he and another person saw pools of blood in the pen.
The council compliance officer reported being confident the dog would be OK, but the following morning the dog was dead.
“There were still no signs of vomiting, diarrhoea, blood or smell of the typical symptoms of ‘parvo’ present,” the compliance officer reported. The dog was disposed of at the council landfill with other deceased animals.
The report went on to say a second compliance officer assisted with the disposal and also commented there were no signs of the typical symptoms of ‘parvo’ present.
Deputy mayor Doug Curran said there was a lot of conjecture the death was caused by the parvovirus, but there were no signs or symptoms of the virus.
“The reason we closed access to the pound to all persons was to ascertain what we were dealing with and ensure the safety of the public,” Councillor Curran said.
“Griffith City Pound will re-open to the public and rescue organisations Monday morning.”
Griffith City Council general manager Brett Stonestreet found the compliance officers had acted professionally.
Construction of a new city pound is due for completion by June 2016.