Pet store dogs under quarantine Bangor vet reports cases of kennel cough

BANGOR – Dogs at the Bangor Mall’s Get-A-Pet store have been placed under quarantine by state officials at the Department of Agriculture.

After seeing several cases of kennel cough in dogs that were bought at Get-A-Pet, Dr. James Meiczinger of the Penobscot Valley Veterinary Hospital wrote a letter to the state, suggesting that dogs at the store be placed under quarantine until the problem could be remedied.

“Right now all the dogs are under quarantine and it will take a vet to lift that quarantine,” Norma Worley, program director for Maine’s Animal Welfare Department, said Monday. The recommended length of the quarantine is 14 days, she said.

Under quarantine, dogs must remain in their cages and cannot leave the store. No additional dogs may be brought into the facility.

The way Maine’s animal welfare laws are written, any veterinarian can place a pet store under quarantine for communicable diseases.

The store is not in any trouble. “It’s simply a health issue, this is not to be a penalty or punishment,” Worley said. Pet store quarantines don’t occur frequently. Worley said they happen only a few times a year in the entire state.

“What’s being asked of them isn’t any more than any of us have been asked to do in the past or would have to do in the future,” Meiczinger said. Kennel cough is not limited to pet stores and may be found anywhere many dogs are together – pet shops, breeding facilities and even veterinarians’ offices.

Meiczinger stressed that businesses should not be labeled or marked based on one incident, but rather on how they respond to the problem.

“The last thing that we want to do is to sell a puppy that’s unhealthy or is going to have health problems in the future,” Get-A-Pet president Arvid Dahlbloom said Monday. With two stores in New Hampshire, the small family business expanded to Bangor just before Christmas. Dahlbloom has been in the pet store business for more than 20 years, not for the money, but because of his love of animals.

All of the puppies at Get-A-Pet are purchased from a USDA-licensed breeder and are routinely vaccinated and examined by a veterinarian.

After crunching some numbers, Dahlbloom said that about 3 percent of the dogs sold in the course of a year are going to have a problem. Since Get-A-Pet opened in Bangor, it has sold about 150 dogs and had about 15 ailments reported after the sale.

At certain times of the year, mainly in the winter, kennel cough is more prevalent than at other times. It is spread the way the common cold or flu would be in an office or school.

“I’ve done everything possible to try [to] rectify the situation and work with the state’s veterinary office,” Dahlbloom said. He said all of the local veterinarians he contacted refused to come to the store and examine the dogs.

In turn, he brought the veterinarian who examines his animals in New Hampshire to the store last weekend.

“This weekend, Dr. [Arthur] Cutter traveled from New Hampshire to Bangor and looked at the store and every dog, and didn’t find any signs of kennel cough or any other ailments in the puppies,” Dahlbloom said.

Cutter reportedly faxed a letter to the state recommending that the quarantine be lifted, but Worley said that as of Tuesday afternoon she had not received the letter.

“We’re not out to sell sick animals, it makes no sense to us or anybody else,” Dahlbloom said.

The state now must decide when to lift the quarantine.

“A private vet can make the recommendation, but ultimately it is our decision,” Worley said.