If all goes well, the Bark Park could reopen as soon as next week if all traces of dog feces are cleaned up.
Parvovirus, a highly contagious disease which can be harmful and even fatal to puppies, had infected a dog that had been to the Bark Park last week, which then caused the park to shut down. Parvovirus is transferred via feces.
Luckily, there have been “no other reports other than the one last week” of parvovirus, said Ridgefield Animal Control Officer David Coles.
Coles said that he and Ridgefield Health Department Director Edward Briggs have to survey the park and scan for canine droppings. Any that are found must first be cleaned up and then the surrounding area must be sprayed with bleach.
“We spoke with two different veterinarians, and they both said that bleach directly on the feces does nothing,” said Coles. The recent amount of rain in the past week has helped wash away or disintegrate some droppings as well.
Coles said that if owners had picked up their dogs’ droppings as they should, the incident would never have occurred.
“They’re supplied with bags…but some people don’t clean up after their dogs,” he said.
The closing of the park for six months was a worst case scenario, but one that Coles needed to address because he could not “with a correct conscious have any more dogs get sick” due to traces of parvovirus which could have been avoided.
“I’m not making any guarantees,” Coles stressed, “But we’re hoping for the beginning of next week” for the park to reopen.
“I apologize for the inconvenience to dog owners of Ridgefield, and we’ll get it open as soon as possible,” he said.
