Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, January 30, 1993 TAG: 9301300011
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A-3 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: NEWPORT NEWS LENGTH: Medium
PARCHED-POOCH'S OWNER TAKES LICKING OVER FOUNTAIN DRINK
City school officials have been dogged by complaints from parents and others since a newspaper published a photograph of a police dog slurping from a water fountain at Huntington Middle School.Health experts say there's virtually no chance of the dog's germs infecting children. The old saying that dogs' mouths are cleaner than people's is essentially true, they said.
"I don't believe that any animal who sits outside sniffing God-knows-what has a mouth that is cleaner than mine," said Newport News resident Jacqueline Huggett. "It's not sanitary. This is a place where kids go to drink water. What were they thinking about?"
The photo in the Daily Press on Thursday showed state police Special Agent C.E. Misuna helping Jake the drug-sniffing dog as the animal stood on his hind legs to get a sip. Misuna and Jake were conducting a demonstration of Jake's drug-searching talents and a routine sniff of the school - his nose turned up no drugs - when Jake got a little parched.
Daniel Warren, director of the Peninsula Health District, said kids and parents need not worry about canine contamination.
"Aesthetically, I can understand why people don't want to see a dog drinking out of a water fountain," Warren said. "Risk-wise, though, it's not a problem. The likelihood of transmitting any kind of disease via a water fountain, whether it's a human or a dog, is remote."
Students have a better chance of catching a virus or bacterial infection by sharing the fountain among themselves than with a dog, he said. Most germs that dogs carry in their mouths are not transferable to humans, Warren said.
Still, Assistant Superintendent Henry Godfrey said more than 25 people called his office Thursday morning, "some of them demanding we take that water fountain out of the wall." Instead, Godfrey said, the school has quarantined the fountain until it's disinfected.
Misuna said he has allowed the dog to drink out of fountains at several schools and never heard any complaints before.
"We definitely didn't mean to offend anyone. We're trying to get the search done as quickly as possible, so when the dog needs a break for some water, that's the closest place," he said. "I really didn't see the harm in it. I drank out of the same fountain after he did."