WICHITA, Kan. (KSNW) – The Wichita Animal Shelter and Kansas Humane Society adopt out pets every day. But some may never find homes because they are sick.

“I have never seen this much parvo coming into the shelter as I have this year,” says Lt. Derek Purcell, supervisor of Wichita Animal Services.

Both shelters are seeing an increase in cases of kennel cough and parvo. The Wichita Animal Shelter does not adopt out sick pets. If a sick animal does not get better or gets taken in by a rescue, it is euthanized.

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“This year, there’s been a couple times when I’ve lost four halls in addition to my sick hall to illness,” says Lt. Purcell.

There’s also a nationwide shortage of veterinarians. The Kansas Humane Society is feeling the effects.

“We cannot currently do public spay neuters because of it. and that was a source of revenue that we put back into our animals,” says Kansas Humane Society marketing and communications director Jordan Bani-Younes.

Leaders at both shelters say you can stop the spread of diseases by vaccinating your pets. While the shelters do not adopt out sick animals–they do let you foster-to-adopt dogs with kennel cough. The Kansas Humane Society supplies the food and medicine while the dog gets better.

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