.jpg)
(WHAS11) - New Albany /Floyd County Animal Shelter officials say 42 dogs are now under quarantine after a couple reported that at least one of the dogs bit them.
The dogs were living in a privately-run no kill shelter and the owner is hoping to soon get them back in her care.
The only fences at Katherine Fraze's "Save That Dog' sanctuary are the ones that keep dozens of dogs out of her garden.
“When my dogs are adopted out, out of over 1,200 dogs, I've maybe had seven returned in all these years,” said Fraze. “That's because I'm really more of a matchmaker.”
But after 13 years of success, an attempted adoption went wrong. Two people ended up getting bitten at the shelter on January 9th.
“The bite that occurred on Saturday was a direct result of the people who were visiting consciously and purposefully not following the two rules that i have when people visit, which is you keep your arms crossed and you don't talk to the dogs until they calm down, “ said Fraze.
That led to the animal control department seizing 42 dogs and quarantining the animals for 10 days, since all of their rabies vaccination records couldn't be produced.
“Animals that are housed in a situation where they are pack animals can be a very dangerous situation to anybody that approaches it,” said New Albany/Floyd County Animal Control Director David Hall.
Fraze says the pack is the way the dogs naturally interact.
“As the pack established itself here with me as its leader, we don't even hear the coyotes anymore,” said Fraze.
And she says if her older dogs have to be euthanized, she wants to be the one to do it.
“We give them sedation and feed them fried chicken with bones, chocolate cake. All the stuff they're not supposed to have,” said Fraze.
The dogs will remain at the shelter until Fraze pays the quarantine fee, which is at $3,500 and growing daily.
Fraze plans to go to the animal control board meeting at 7:00 Thursday night to ask the board to waive the quarantine fees and return her dogs.
Animal control officers say she could be fined or face other penalties later in municipal court as a result of the citations issued at the time of the animals' seizure.
Both groups say they are willing to work together to get as many of the dogs as possible adopted to good homes.
