Humane Society of Southern Wisconsin working to support staff, make improvements after dog fight

JANESVILLE, Wis. (WMTV) -The Humane Society of Southern Wisconsin is now working on ways to support staff members and make improvements after breaking up a dog fight at the facility on Monday.

This comes after the organization posted about the incident on Facebook.

“We did have two folks get injured, unfortunately, during that,” the shelter services director Kaitie Swedlund said.

She describes those team members as resilient.

“Both are doing well, truly better than anyone ever expected, both have already been back and interacting with dogs again,” Swedlund added.

The shelter’s services director says the team trains with the organization Dogs Playing for Life. They also send staff to dog expos and conferences to bring back new information.

“With that comes how to break up fights and how to get back into the swing of things afterward and the knowledge of things are always going to happen,” Swedlund said.

This fight did result in the shelter receiving a dog bite order from Rock County Public Health, which was issued by the sheriff’s office. The dogs will have to be quarantined and examined by a licensed veterinarian three times during a 10-day period.

“If the owner of the animal has proof that the animal has its rabies vaccination, then they can quarantine the animal at home,” deputy sheriff Rashan Blocker-Nelson said.

The two dogs came to the shelter several weeks ago.

“All the dogs in the playgroup at the time, we don’t know their breed,” Swedlund said. “Unfortunately, we don’t do DNA testing because that would be expensive to do so and will probably take a really long time.”

She said these incidents are not common but also not rare.

“We can have all the training in the world and all the licenses, and sometimes things happen beyond our control,” she explained.

The Humane Society of Southern Wisconsin also provided its staff with an optional counseling group session this week. Team leaders say they plan to have more conversations as this healing journey begins.

As far as what happens to the animals, the Rock County Sheriff’s Office says the next steps are in the hands of the county’s public health department.

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