Upper Peninsula Animal Welfare Shelter

Full Public Statement / Website PSA

Dear UPAWS Community,

Out of an abundance of caution and in the best interests of all the animals in our care, UPAWS has decided to temporarily close our facility to the public, effective May 29th.

Essential staff are on site and fully dedicated to the care of our animals and the maintenance of our facility. All of our energy and focus are being directed toward the well-being of every animal under our roof.

Effective immediately, all of the following are suspended until further notice:

•  All dog, cat, and small critter meets, adoptions, and all pet services

•  All surrenders and stray intakes — no incoming animals of any kind

•  UPAWS dog park

•  No public access to the building

During this time, our building will be staffed only by essential personnel. We kindly ask that all visitors, volunteers, and non-essential staff refrain from entering the facility until further notice.

We are closed for at least two weeks. UPAWS will continue to provide updates on our timeline as the situation develops.

We appreciate your patience and understanding more than words can say. If you have any questions, please reach out to us directly — we are not able to answer questions through social media at this time.

supervisors@upaws.org

475-6661

Thank you for your continued love and support of UPAWS and every animal in our care.

The UPAWS Team

ORIGINAL STATEMENT

Dear UPAWS Community,

We want to take a moment to update you on the situation at our shelter and provide some important clarification. In the spirit of transparency, we feel it is important to share the full picture with you.

The affected puppies are not from our local community. They arrived to us as part of a transfer intake and had been medically cleared by a veterinarian just days prior to their arrival. However, upon intake, our staff felt the puppies appeared clinically ill, and immediate isolation precautions were put in place right away — and thankfully so.

By Sunday, when true parvovirus symptoms became present, our team retested them immediately. The results came back as a strong positive. Since that time, strict isolation and biosecurity protocols have remained in place, while our team continues to provide the puppies with supportive care.

We want to be clear: we were not made aware that these puppies were ill prior to their arrival. We were told they were healthy, and we had documentation from a veterinarian confirming they had been medically cleared just days before coming to us. We accepted these puppies in good faith, as we do with all animals entrusted to our care. The information we were provided did not reflect their true health status, and this was entirely beyond our control. What was within our control was how we responded — and our team responded swiftly, professionally, and with the best interests of every animal in this shelter at heart.

We are pleased to share that at this time, we feel confident the outbreak is contained within this litter and has not spread to the general shelter population.

As an additional precautionary measure, UPAWS has temporarily closed to the public and non-essential traffic. Until further notice, the following services and areas are suspended:

• Dog surrenders and stray dog intakes are temporarily suspended
• Dog meet-and-greets and dog-related services are temporarily unavailable
• The UPAWS dog park is temporarily closed

Cat and small critter meet-and-greets are continuing as normal

This decision was made proactively to further protect both the animals in our care and the greater community. We take disease prevention and containment extremely seriously, and we felt it was important to err on the side of caution while maintaining rigorous sanitation and isolation procedures throughout our facility.

We have also notified the Michigan Department of Agriculture and Rural Development (MDARD) and are working in full cooperation with the appropriate agencies as we manage this situation.

We also want to extend our sincere gratitude to the area veterinary clinics for their concern and communication during this time — your partnership means the world to us.

We will continue to keep our community updated as the situation develops. If you have any questions, please reach out to us directly — we want to make sure you get the right information!

📧  supervisors@upaws.org

📞  475-6661

Thank you, as always, for your incredible love and support of UPAWS and the animals in our care. 🐾

— The UPAWS Team