Humane Society moves up reopening to Saturday

The Lexington Humane Society now plans to open two days ahead of schedule following an outbreak of a highly contagious and deadly bacteria that shut down its adoptions for nearly two weeks.

Its main Old Frankfort Pike campus was closed Dec. 5 and will now reopen at noon on Saturday. Previously, the humane society was going to reopen and restart adoptions on Monday.

“We decided, hey, we are ready and we don’t want to push it off another couple days,” said Ashley Hammond, the humane society’s senior manager of donor relations. “We want to put these pets in forever homes for Christmas.”

The shelter initially made the decision to close for quarantine after one dog died of Streptococcus zooepidemicus, also known as strep zoo.

Two more of the shelter’s dogs also died of the bacterial infection, according to the humane society. On Wednesday, the shelter said in an email that the rest of its dogs are OK.

With Christmas approaching, Hammond hopes for large crowds of families wanting pets in the coming days.

“We hope there is a line out on Old Frankfort Pike,” she said.

For more information on the animals available for adoption, visit AdoptLove.com or call 859-233-0044.

This story was originally published December 15, 2017 at 10:59 AM with the headline "Humane Society moves up reopening to Saturday."