Shelter manager says kitten season, sick intakes and disease have driven an uptick in euthanasia

Shelter manager Levi Liao said during the Weatherford Animal Shelter Advisory Committee meeting July 15 that the shelter is entering a busy "kitten season" and has seen a corresponding rise in sick and injured intakes that has increased euthanasia for animals deemed too ill to recover.

"Every year, we experience what's known as kitten season, which typically lasts from early spring through late fall," Liao said, describing the April–September surge in newborn kittens that often arrive without mothers and require round‑the‑clock bottle feeding. "That is why we really utilize and we lean on our rescue partners during this time to help facilitate these transitions with the bottle babies."

Liao said the shelter has seen "an uptick in euthanization" this month driven largely by animals arriving sick or injured. He credited local rescue groups and fosters with taking many healthy animals but said severely ill animals sometimes must be euthanized "to keep them from suffering." The chair added that, in a separate poultry case, "7 of the 9 samples were positive," a result that led to a state mandate to euthanize infected birds and temporarily bar housing birds on the premises while decontamination occurred.

Veterinarian Dr. McLeod told the committee the shelter is monitoring multiple infectious‑disease threats. "New World screwworms have been found in Texas over the last month and a half or so," she said, explaining that the larvae feed on living tissue and can affect livestock, wildlife and pets. Dr. McLeod also described a recent equine herpes myeloencephalopathy case that required euthanasia of an affected donkey and isolation of exposed equines; and she reported follow‑up testing after a puppy adopted from the shelter was later diagnosed with canine distemper and subsequently euthanized.

Dr. McLeod said shelter staff are doing targeted surveillance: "So far, everything has come back negative" for recent canine testing, but she said the shelter is prioritizing testing for animals showing illness and reviewing protocols to limit spread. Liao and Dr. McLeod emphasized the shelter's partnerships with rescue groups—Parker County Pets Alive was cited as a frequent sponsor of treatment such as heartworm care—that enable more animals to be treated and placed.

The committee did not adopt new policy at the meeting; Liao said staff are focusing on continued surveillance, rescue partnerships, and proactive communication about intake pressures during kitten season. The advisory committee will receive further operations updates at upcoming meetings.