Humane Pennsylvania and The Animal Rescue League of Berks County have partnered up to provide a series of pay-what-you-can vaccination clinics through Humane Pennsylvania’s Healthy Pets Initiative program.
The partnership comes after both organizations noted a spike in reported parvo cases within the City of Reading over the past few months.
Canine parvovirus, better known as parvo, is a highly contagious virus that can affect all dogs, although unvaccinated dogs and puppies younger than four months old tend to be the most at risk (avma.org). Nearly 60% of the parvovirus cases reported in the City of Reading have occurred within a few blocks of Amanda E. Stout Elementary School.
Karel Minor, Humane Pennsylvania CEO, recently weighed in on the importance of this partnership and educating the community about this deadly virus. “Humane Pennsylvania is very pleased to be partnering with ARL to be delivering critical preventative vaccinations in Reading. We can do much more together, and by sharing data we can be much more effective at ensuring we target services toward the most critical need. I hope this is just the beginning of a new era of teamwork and mutual support between the two organizations.”
This three-part, parvo-focused, pay-what-you-can clinic will occur every two weeks, with the second clinic taking place on Friday, August 27th at Amanda E. Stout Elementary School in Reading.
“We are excited to be partnering with Humane Pennsylvania to share data and deliver life-saving vaccines in our community to proactively combat the serious parvovirus outbreak that we are seeing emerge at alarming rates. We are looking forward to this new chapter of collaboration and believe teamwork and mutual support are vital to addressing Berks County’s most significant animal-welfare challenges,” said Alexis Pagoulatos, ARL’s CEO.
“Our goal is to strategically complement each other’s strengths and combine our capabilities and expertise to drive positive outcomes that are grounded in data, veterinary science and industry best practices.”
Those interested in attending the second clinic can register now at https://humanepa.org/healthypets/upcomingclinicdates/. A pre-registration QR code for the 3rd clinic will be provided to those who attend the upcoming clinic this Friday, August 27th. General registration for the 3rd clinic will become available to the public on Friday, September 3rd.
