
(Beth Clifton collage)
301 code violations & losing newly transported pups to parvovirus wasn’t bad enough?
CAMDEN, Delaware––That the First State Animal Center & SPCA in Camden, Delaware recently lost 19 puppies to parvovirus is no great shock to veterans of animal care and rescue: sometimes bloody diarrhea happens among stressed puppies brought or transported to shelters, no matter what anyone does.
Once a parvo outbreak starts, it can become extremely difficult to control, even with the best of veterinary care and prompt isolation and quarantine of both ill and exposed puppies.
Neither is the worst shock of the episode––though it is a shocker––that the Delaware Office of Animal Welfare has hit the First State Animal Center & SPCA with $12,000 in fines thus far in 2021, for more than 300 violations of animal care regulations that allegedly contributed to the deaths.

(Beth & Merritt Clifton collage)
What if the case involved a laboratory or puppy mill?
Had the First State Animal Center & SPCA been a laboratory or a puppy mill caught with as many violations, animal advocacy organizations would be lined up half a dozen deep, demanding fines ten times higher, the firing of key personnel, and that the facilities be permanently closed.
But beyond all that, the shocker of shockers is, or should be, that First State Animal Center & SPCA director Jon Parana reportedly told media, including Shannon Marvel McNaught of the Delaware News Journal, that as she wrote and the Delaware News Journal headlined, “They’d do it all over again.”
Elaborated McNaught, “Parana said they’d do it all over again if they had to.”
If they had to?

(Beth Clifton photo)
No one had to neglect basic care
Transported to the First State Animal Center & SPCA from an unidentified Arkansas rescue, the truckload of 83 dogs “arrived at First State on February 14, 2021,” McNaught explained.
“After receiving three complaints including allegations of ‘improper transport, inadequate staffing and medical care provided, and disease transmission,’ animal welfare officers inspected the shelter on February 27, 2021,” McNaught continued.
“They found 301 violations of Delaware’s Shelter Standards Law,” including 83 counts of invalid health certificates, 64 counts of failure to adhere to veterinary protocol, 51 counts of failure to perform intake exams within three days of arrival, and 103 counts of failure to maintain records.”
Said Parana, “We were told if they [the dogs] weren’t rescued they were going to be euthanized. And if there’s 85 dogs that are going to die, and we’re there at the spot, we’re going to do our damnedest to save them.”

(Beth Clifton collage)
Neglecting intake exams is not a life-saving procedure
But the First State Animal Center & SPCA did not have to neglect intake examinations and veterinary protocol to try to save the puppies. Quite the opposite.
And transporting dogs with invalid health certificates is not a life-saving procedure, either. Rather, it is how diseases lethal to dogs––and occasionally humans––spread, sometimes worldwide.
This is why the U.S. Centers for Disease Control & Prevention in June 2021 prohibited imports of dogs from 113 nations known to have endemic canine rabies, eradicated from the U.S. circa 50 years ago.
“During 2020, the CDC discovered more than 450 dogs arriving in the U.S. with falsified or fraudulent rabies certificates, a 52% increase compared with the previous two years,” National Public Radio reported.
At least one of those dogs, brought from Azerbaijan, proved to be actively rabid.

(Beth Clifton collage)
Ringworm too
Operating since 1953, and from the present shelter since 2001, the First State Animal Center & SPCA did not import rabid dogs into Delaware, but what it did do was quite bad enough.
Delaware Office of Animal Welfare executive director Christina Motoyoshi in an April 30, 2021 letter to the First State Animal Center & SPCA observed that “Thirteen of the 83 dogs [brought to Arkansas] tested positive for parvovirus, and by the time of the February 27, 2021 inspection, nine of them had died,” McNaught recounted.
In addition, McNaught wrote, “Fourteen of the dogs had ringworm, a contagious fungal skin infection. They were not properly isolated.”
Parana, according to McNaught, blamed the crisis on “the shelter’s former advising veterinarian, who resigned shortly after the transport.”
Both parvovirus and ringworm are easily recognized by experienced shelter workers, however, who could be expected to know how to respond to contain an outbreak of either disease––or both––even before what should have been the prompt arrival of veterinary help.

John and Angela Parana.
(Beth Clifton collage)
Shelter director was a pastry baker
But Parana was not an experienced shelter worker. He may have been a somewhat experienced First State Animal Center & SPCA volunteer, having appeared in a November 2017 publicity photo accepting a check for the shelter from the Dover Federal Credit Union and having been tagged by his wife Angela in connection with adoption promotions in October 2017 and January, April, and May 2018.
Parana’s most recent previous jobs, however, appear to have been as a baker for restaurants called Bake My Day in Fenwick Island, Delaware; Nonna’s Sweet Treats, in Rehobeth Beach, Delaware; and Avenue 67 Café, operated from the same location as Nonna’s Sweet Treats after Parana and wife Angela took over the lease in 2016. The Avenue 67 Café is no longer in business.
Former First State Animal Center & SPCA director Kevin Usilton, paid $40,700 a year after seven years’ service and 30 years in the animal care and control field, in September 2019 accepted a substantial raise to head Baltimore County Animal Services. Usilton, before coming to the First State Animal Center & SPCA, put in time with the Baltimore City Bureau of Animal Control, the Humane Society of Wicomico County, the Delaware Humane Association, and the Humane Society of Greater Dayton, Ohio.
Parana succeeded Usilton in January 2020.

(Beth Clifton photo)
Fine could have been reduced if shelter came into compliance within six months
The Delaware Office of Animal Welfare initially fined the First State Animal Center & SPCA $8,300.
“A contributing factor,” Motoyoshi told McNaught, “was that the Office of Animal Welfare has provided multiple educational meetings and discussions with the First State Animal Center & SPCA regarding the requirements set in law.”
“Motoyoshi offered to reduce the fine to $5,000 if all requirements were met during a follow-up inspection,” McNaught wrote, “but that didn’t happen. A June 24, 2021 inspection found 16 more violations, many of which were repeats, according to a July 8, 2021 letter from Motoyoshi.”
That earned the First State Animal Center & SPCA a second fine of $4,250.
The June 24, 2021 inspection found “continued deficiencies” in record keeping and still inadequate veterinary protocols, McNaught reported.

(Beth Clifton collage)
Another dog died
“Another violation was issued over a dog who died,” after having not been seen by a veterinarian in a timely manner,” McNaught continued.
“During that incident,” McNaught added, “state and federal law may have been broken in the administration of controlled substances by non-veterinary staff, according to the Motoyoshi letter.”
Specifically, McNaught summarized, “First State could not provide a current U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration license, required for the use of controlled substances in a May [2021] euthanization.”
The June 24, 2021 inspection also found that several First State Animal Center & SPCA kennels “had protruding wire and exposed sharp edges that could injure dogs inside,” Motoyoshi advised the shelter in writing.
As of September 28, 2021, Parana told McNaught, the First State Animal Center & SPCA application for a Drug Enforcement Administration license to keep euthanasia drugs remained “pending.”
“Kennel doors deemed unsafe appeared to have been removed,” McNaught said.
Parana blamed the record-keeping deficiencies on “software issues.”

(Humane society of Broward County photo)
Ice storm
“Prior to the February trip to Arkansas, First State had only 12 dogs at its shelter, according to Parana,” McNaught said.
The former First State Animal Center & SPCA veterinarian, who subsequently resigned, “had been in touch with an Arkansas rescue that needed help with 30 puppies, Parana said. He authorized her to go get them.
“A handful of staff made the 22-hour drive to Arkansas in two vans. At the time, Arkansas was experiencing a rare winter storm, with low temperatures and high winds, according to First State veterinary technician Jess Tyler.”

(Beth Clifton collage)
Went to pick up 30 dogs, brought back 85
Said Tyler, “These dogs were all in outside kennels and the only thing they had for protection was a tarp in this ice storm. They talked us into taking 85.”
Parana authorized the team to bring the dogs back to Camden.
Concluded McNaught, “They were unaware any of the dogs had parvo and they showed no symptoms, Tyler said.”
The typical onset time for parvovirus infections is three to five days. Had all of the dogs been promptly vaccinated against parvo on arrival in Camden, which would have been standard animal shelter practice, all of them might have survived.

Julie Castle rescuing pit bulls.
(Beth Clifton collage)
“Delaware is a microcosm of what is to come nationwide”
“Delaware is a microcosm of what is to come nationwide,” exulted Best Friends Animal Society chief executive Julie Castle on July 17, 2020, claiming a big share of the achievement for Best Friends after Delaware animal shelters achieved a 90% “live release rate” for the second year in a row.
But as ANIMALS 24-7 has often pointed out, using “live release rate” as a measure of animal shelter success encourages shelters to refuse admissions of hard-to-rehome animals, especially dangerous dogs and cats who cannot easily be handled; to simultaneously inflate intake statistics by importing adoptable animals from outside the community, including in some cases by acquiring puppies bought directly from puppy mills by unscrupulous “rescues” operating as brokers; and to adopt out dangerous and unhealthy animals.
“The groundwork for getting to no-kill started more than a decade ago,” Castle recalled. “In 2009, the Delaware SPCA opened the Jane R. Haggard Spay/Neuter Clinic — the first of its kind in Delaware — to provide high-quality, affordable spay/neuter services to the public and local animal rescue groups.”
“When the Brandywine Valley SPCA took over all animal control duties statewide in 2016,” Castle continued, the organization “also began offering low-cost veterinary clinics so that families didn’t have to give up their pets simply because they couldn’t afford their medical care.”

(Beth Clifton photo)
Dismantled protection from pit bulls
So far, so good. But the public discontent with Delaware animal control service that led to the Brandywine Valley SPCA takeover of animal control duties statewide included the failure of the previous animal control contractors to effectively respond to increasingly frequent pit bull attacks, the most serious of which, on May 7, 2014, killed four-year-old Kasii Haith, of Camden.
Instead of reinforcing animal control legislation to better protect the public, and other animals, from pit bulls, the Brandywine Valley SPCA and the Delaware Humane Association, with heavy support from the Best Friends Animal Society, in June 2017 won passage of a law which completely dismantled the ability of communities to exclude pit bulls before they actually commit mayhem.
There have been no further human fatalities in Delaware from attacks by dogs of any breed, but disfiguring pit bull attacks have continued apace, along with pit bull attacks on other pets and livestock, and shootings of pit bulls, both by police and by civilians, to stop attacks.

(Beth Clifton collage)
Shelter disease outbreaks are deadly too
Disease outbreaks at shelters trying to “save them all,” as the Best Friends Animal Society motto prescribes, have the potential to kill far more animals than the 2019 Delaware shelter euthanasia toll of 626, especially if a diseased animal is rehomed into contact with the public.
(See “No-kill” debacle: will Pueblo bring “responsible sheltering” into vogue? and Casualties of the “save rate”: 40,000 animals at failed no-kill shelters & rescues.)
The worst shelter disease outbreak on record came at the Lied Animal Shelter in Las Vegas in February 2007.
Originally handling only Las Vegas animals, the Lied Animal Shelter opened in February 2001. The Lied management almost immediately came under intensive criticism for purportedly killing incoming animals too quickly, after an incident in which a child’s dog was euthanized by accident. The shelter was expanded two years later to also hold animals impounded from Clark County, surrounding Las Vegas.

(Merritt Clifton collage)
Las Vegas outbreak killed 1,000 animals
A decade later the shelter tried to go no-kill––prematurely. Outside personnel were eventually brought in to help euthanize more than 1,000 of the 1,800 animals in custody.
About 150 of the animals were ill, and 850 were believed to have been exposed to both parvovirus and distemper among the holding kennels for incoming dogs, and panleukopenia among the incoming cats, along with a bacterial infection never previously found in shelters that caused a fatal hemorrhagic pneumonia.
Fortunately none of the diseases afflicting the Lied Animal Shelter did “go public.”

Merritt, Teddy, & Beth Clifton
Similar episodes have occurred around the U.S. and Canada since then, but with fewer casualties, chiefly because the afflicted shelters have served much smaller communities, therefore taking in fewer animals.
Sharing, with gratitude. I deal with this every day in my advocacy work and there are days when I feel like just giving up. But I don’t, because while one cat, kitten, rabbit, bird, or other animal languishes in a “shelter” or fights for survival on the streets, there is work to be done.
First of all, I think John needs to go back to pastry baking.
I give credit to the agency for taking action and I wish this occurred more often around the country, especially in those states where animal protection laws and regulations are not always enforced. As to the comment, “using ‘live release rate’ as a measure of animal shelter success encourages shelters to refuse admissions of hard-to-rehome animals,” I agree and would add that the pressure to meet quotas has also contributed to many more problems and where the numbers are prioritized over making good decisions about animal care. With regard to the Lied shelter in Las Vegas (where I live), the huge pressure from no-kill advocates may have served to contribute to the problem. The conflict and bad press didn’t help encourage taking time to implement a well-thought-out plan. Regardless, when an animal organization is forced to satisfy quotas, there are going to be problems and animals usually pay the price. This is the challenge that still needs to be addressed when we strive for a no-kill model. The goal is a worthy one; but the methods need tweaking so animals don’t fall through the cracks and rescue partners aren’t overly burdened with costly transfers of sick, injured or otherwise compromised animals. Lied has a shiny new state-of-the-art vet clinic, but they perform basic procedures rather than more involved surgeries (possibly due to an insufficient number of vet staff or other internal problems).
Many animal shelters around the U.S., including the no-kill Brandywine SPCA right there in Delaware on many occasions, have suddenly and unexpectedly had to accommodate 83 or more stressed, sick, and/or neglected animals, and have protocols in place for just such emergencies. Even if a shelter does not have protocols in place for handling an emergency influx of animals, experienced help in this day and age is just a telephone call or email message away. The Brandywine SPCA, for instance, is just 7.6 miles from the First State Animal Center & SPCA.
A number of us fought to have the Office of Animal Welfare created precisely because of problems with this particular shelter and Delaware’s lack of accountability in regard to shelters. Glad to see the OAW fulfilling the oversight function. However, while the laws were changed to exclude breed specific legislation there are laws governing dangerous dogs. The reference to the child that was killed does not give the whole picture regarding the incident. I also believe the reference to the previous director’s salary is not correct – it was higher, at least until they lost the dog control contracts with Law’s creation.
The whole picture concerning the May 8, 2014 death of four-year-old Kasii Haith, who was fatally mauled by two unlicensed adult pit bulls and their puppy, is that the non-breed specific Delaware legislation in effect both then and now failed to protect him from what was the first reported bite by any of the pit bulls. This is a very common pattern with pit bull and Rottweiler attacks, in particular, whose first reported bites often inflict disfiguring or fatal injuries, as we have seen and confirmed in logging the data pertaining to more than 10,000 fatal and disfiguring dog attacks.
Accordingly, any law that will effectively protect the public and other animals from pit bull and Rottweiler attacks must be breed-specific.
This point was underscored in Delaware in September 2014 when a pit bull with no previous reported bite history tore the right arm off of eight-year-old Emily Ruckle, of Newark, and nearly tore off her left arm as well.
Several other Delaware communities previously did exclude pit bulls, and had no history of fatal or disfiguring pit bull attacks while their bylaws were in effect, but those bylaws were rescinded by the June 2017 state law pushed through by the Brandywine Valley SPCA, the Delaware Humane Association, and the Best Friends Animal Society.
According to First State Animal Center & SPCA filings of IRS Form 990, former executive director Kevin Usilton was paid $77,408 in 2016-2017, the last fiscal year during which First State held an animal control contract. This dropped to $40,417 in 2017-2018.
Catherine,
The previous director has nothing to do with this, nor does his salary.
The only reference this incident has to previous years is that the First State Animal Center & SPCA, when it was the Kent County SPCA under Murray Goldthwaite, and later Kevin Usilton, did animal control, picked up strays, and investigated animal neglect. They even went out on foot patrol before winter storms to ensure that outdoor dogs had proper bedding. I know for a fact this was done.
The Kent County SPCA, with the Georgetown SPCA, now called the Brandywine SPCA, did quite a few large rescue seizures from horrific situations.
All that stopped as soon as former Delaware state senator Patricia Blevins was given $3 million to start the Office of Animal Welfare.
Delaware animals have been suffering since the 2012 takeover by the no-kill-at-any-cost faction.
Lord, please watch over our innocent four-Legged fur babies here!
Merritt and Beth, as always your down to earth common sense information is much appreciated. At our shelter we euthanize animals everyday to make room for new arrivals. Many are not adoptable because health issues, behavior issues, because we already have 6 black kittens up for adoption and if we can’t place 6 then we sure can’t place the additional 13 new black kittens arriving. The truth isn’t always easy but very necessary.
While certainly, transport has helped save lives, it is almost like musical chairs. The huge focus HAS to be on spay/neuter and responsible people. No-Kill will NEVER be achieved in every state until laws mandating spay/neuter are developed in every state. Also, until some type of controls are placed on back yard breeders and puppy mills, open intake shelters will be swimming upstream and getting nowhere. Will continued to be criticized by the well meaning but uneducated public. It is hard to describe the feeling that shelter staff go through when their doors open in the morning and there are 3 adoption runs available, maybe 5 in the new arrival runs, 2 available cages in cat adoption with cat receiving full with stray holds and those waiting their turn to move to adoption. Then there is puppy adoption with maybe 4 cages and the puppy receiving maybe another 4 cages open. Then in the first 2 hours you are open, 64 new animals arrive. By the end of the day, 87 animals have been brought in, 3 adoptions have taken place and 2 strays returned to their owner. Do the math….it is that simple. At the end of the day the staff is physically and mentally drained!
But turning those animals away with no where else to go immediately is animal abuse. Many of them would be dumped, some given to anyone who would take them regardless if they were fit to have an animal, or financially able to care for one and responsible enough to spay and neuter. There are many things worse than humane euthanasia. But after almost 45 years in animal sheltering, I still have a hard time with the disregard and apathy so many people have for animals. How do you change someone’s basic personality and hard heart?
For the critics, how many of those 87 animals would you have turned away at your door that day, and 61 the next and how about the 97 that arrive on day 3. There will never be truly no-kill for any open intake shelter until these numbers games stop and everyone takes off their rose colored glasses and starts advocating for the animals. Not criticizing the shelters who do not abandon them to the street and unknown futures. The solution is so simple….spay/neuter…..save lives. Truly this is the goal for all of us who love and respect animals. Surely we can all agree with this simple fact rather than pointing fingers at each other.
Heading the Mississippi Animal Rescue League in Jackson, Mississippi, since 1978, Debra Boswell introduced a nationally acclaimed spay/neuter program, against considerable veterinary opposition. The only open admission shelter serving the Jackson region, the Mississippi Animal Rescue League receives about 13,000 animals per year. Boswell in 2019 contributed the ANIMALS 24-7 guest column Pit bulls: An active 40+ year shelter director speaks out too.
I really appreciate your investigative reports, including this one, and have learned so much!
Shelters everywhere, including the no-kills, are so overwhelmingly full. Even Takis Shelter in Crete, Greece is beyond full, despite 500+ dogs, including puppies, having plenty of space on a vast land that Takis purchased almost ten years ago. I absolutely agree that dogs and cats getting spayed and neutered would keep the pet population under control. I never cease to come across news about healthy dogs and cats having to be euthanized just because many shelters are bursting at the seams, so to speak, with far too many dogs and cats being taken regularly. What’s worse is that the surrendering of already-adopted dogs and cats is at an all-time high as the COVID-19 pandemic eases up.
The problem lies with ‘human parents’ of dogs and cats who haven’t fully grasped the importance of maintaining their life-long allegiances to their domesticated nonhuman beings. If these parents are not able to commit themselves to the health and wellbeing of their dogs and cats, they shouldn’t have them! Humans who are thoughtful and well-informed would take the best interests of dogs and cats when making decisions about fostering and/or adopting them. Taking into account the realisticness of their selves, as well as their lives, these people can determine whether or not they are the right kind to have domesticated nonhuman beings.
#AdoptDontShop
Also to note is that with all of the human lives lost to Covid 19, their pets if not taken by relatives or friends, have ended up in shelters.
I have just realized, with a chill, that this is the reason I have seen a deluge of people trying to find homes for older small-breed dogs through social media and posted flyers in my area. The Covid death rates have been rather grim.
NO-KILL philosophy at work..i will never understand how dying a slow miserable death is better than euthanasia..i truly believe these kind of cases are more about money or a mental sickness or maybe both..i am sick of people who say they dont believe in euthanasia or spaying while pregnant but go home and eat their meat every night..such mental midgets and hypocritical..