Colorado Pet Rescue's License Suspended After Four Puppies Euthanized

A pet rescue in Englewood was ordered to cease operations as state officials claim it failed to properly isolate sick puppies, leading to four euthanizations.

The Colorado Department of Agriculture suspended the pet animal facility license of Moms and Mutts Colorado (MAMCO), a nonprofit rescue for pregnant and nursing dogs and cats, on February 28. The rescue must surrender all the animals in its care to other licensed shelters or rescue organizations.

"Based on the findings of the recent inspections, CDA believes there is an imminent threat to the health and safety of Colorado dogs and their owners," the ag department says in a statement.

MAMCO is accused of keeping a litter of puppies infected with hookworms, a contagious intestinal parasite, together in a playpen, not isolating the puppies from one another or from the staff's personal pets. The puppies were rescued from Texas in early December, but one was euthanized on January 29 and three more were euthanized on February 2, according to the CDA's report.

Colorado's Pet Animal Care and Facilities Act (PACFA) requires that animals suspected of having a communicable disease be isolated "from other susceptible animals and the public."

Aron Jones, director of MAMCO, argues that the rescue followed state law in its housing of the puppies: "The puppies were isolated in a separate room, on a tarp, inside of a playpen. No other rescue dogs were allowed into the room. We do not walk on tarps," she says.

However, CDA inspectors visited the day after the first puppy was euthanized, and found the rest of the infected puppies were still being kept together and in the same room with the staff's dogs.

"Multiple employees walked in and out of the room without any personal protective equipment. The puppies shared communal food and water bowls. ...Respondent was still failing to take precautions to prevent cross-contamination," the report states.

According to the report, on January 30 four of the puppies were taken to a vet, who recommended they be hospitalized and informed the rescue that "the puppies were likely reinfecting each other because of the failure to isolate." The puppies were treated but returned to the rescue the same day. Three days later, three of the puppies were euthanized after their conditions worsened, according to the CDA.

Jones says that's not what happened, claiming the vet initially turned them away because they had been told the first pup might have died of rabies — the CDA report says the vet who treated the first euthanized puppy suggested it could have rabies because of neurological symptoms, but a test later came back negative.

"By the time we got the test results and the vet would agree to see us, the three puppies were very sick," Jones says. "We had done as much as we could and the vet gave us advice over the phone to the best of her ability. We hospitalized them, but after a few hours, the vet called and said it was best to let them go."

MAMCO was already on thin ice with the state. The rescue was just two months into an eighteen-month probationary period established after it was accused of various violations from January to July 2024, including alleged failures to adequately control pests in the facility, clean up animal waste, sanitize enclosures and house dogs in properly sized enclosures.

The rescue has made headlines before. Last summer, eleven puppies were exposed to a rabies-infected puppy during a MAMCO adoption event — the state's first recorded canine rabies infection in four years. All twelve of the puppies were euthanized.

Jones blames the rabies incident for her troubles with the state. She claims officials are targeting her rescue to advance a recently proposed rule change that now requires out-of-state pets brought to Colorado animal facilities be vaccinated for rabies. That proposal was partially inspired by MAMCO's rabies incident, and Jones says it would "effectively disable" rescues like hers, as dogs can't be vaccinated for rabies until they are twelve weeks old.

"Those three puppies died because PACFA is trying to get their political agenda passed. Not because of us," Jones says. "Colorado PACFA has broken several laws and violated their own policies in order to make us the pawn in their political game. ...They are perverting the rules in order to get their rabies protocols passed in the spring."

Jones plans to fight the license suspension but expects to shut down regardless. "We will have to declare bankruptcy long before the hearing and close our doors," she says. "Without adoption fees, we cannot pay the bills. Our staff will go unpaid and this has hurt them as well."

A hearing for the license suspension and recent alleged violations is set to be scheduled on March 14, according to the report.