Kansas Humane Society could be forced to euthanize more animals

WICHITA, Kan. (KSNW) – The Kansas Humane Society says its sickest animals are in danger of being euthanized because the Kansas Department of Agriculture is enforcing a decades-old state law.

Essentially, the KHS says the KDA recently fined a partner of theirs for taking in a transfer of sick puppies from this. They say this is something they’ve done for years, but the KHS says the KDA is now enforcing a statute from 2004 against the transfer of animals with contagious diseases to other shelters.

Jordan Bani-Younes, the Communications and Marketing Director at KHS, says there are no exceptions made based on the type of disease, so even animals with minor illnesses could be kept from transferring to other places with more room.

“That means they can’t be moved from Wichita Animal Services to KHS, it means we can’t send them out to rescue or foster essentially, any illness is now a death sentence for those animals because they’re suddenly starting to enforce this law that was put in place 20 years ago,” said Bani-Younes.

KSN spoke with the KDA’s animal health commissioner. He says the state has always enforced the statute on a case-by-case basis. He also says shelters can send pets to foster homes when they’re sick, but only under specific conditions.

This state statute basically says that sick pets can’t be transferred out of shelters unless they’re being placed under a veterinarian’s care. With the rule being enforced, the KHS says keeping sick animals will worsen overcrowding.

For years the KHS says it’s been transferring and accepting sick animals to and from other shelters and sending them to foster parents.

“We are governed by the statutes they have in place and enforce. They haven’t enforced this, which has allowed us to help countless animals that have come to us with treatable diseases,” said Bani-Younes.

He says that all changed on Monday.

“One of our Humane Society partners was cited by them due to the transfer of several parvo-positive puppies that we had transferred to them,” said Bani-Younes.

He says the KHS contacted the KDA, and they said transporting any animal with an infectious disease could get their license revoked and result in hefty fines of up to $1,000 per animal per day.

“I gotta point back to what our charge is as an animal health division, and that’s protect societies and the pets that are out there in society,” said KDA Animal Health Commissioner Justin Smith.

The KDA says it hasn’t ramped up enforcement. It says back in 2019, it made rules more flexible so shelters could foster out sick pets under proper veterinary supervision.

The department also says it doesn’t want animals to be euthanized because of lack of space and is open to future conversations on changing some rules.

The KHS says it’s waiting on a full clarification of rules from the KDA, which should come in sometime next week.

The organization says if the rules are as tight as they believe they could be, they’ll lobby lawmakers to change them.

To read the Kansas state statute about the adoption and sale of animals with illnesses and/or disease(s), click here.

To learn more about fostering, you can call the KHS at 316-524-9196 or visit their website.