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Humane PA, Animal Rescue League Team Up to Battle Canine Parvo Virus

Aug 12, 2021

Humane Pennsylvania and The Animal Rescue League of Berks County (ARL) have partnered up to provide a series of pay-what-you-can vaccination clinics through Humane Pennsylvania’s Healthy Pets Initiative program. This 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, weighs 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.”

“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.”

This three-part, parvo-focused, pay-what-you-can clinic will occur every two weeks, with the first clinic taking place on Friday, August 13th at Amanda E. Stout Elementary School in Reading, PA. Additional details regarding the first clinic are as follows:

Date: Friday, Aug. 13, 2021

Time: 4 PM – 7 PM

Location: Amanda E. Stout Elementary School – 321 S. 10th St. Reading, PA, 19602

To register for this upcoming pay-what-you-can clinic, and to stay up-to-date on all clinics in this series, please visit https://humanepa.org/healthypets/upcomingclinicdates/.

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