The 10-day quarantine for two dozen dogs taken out of a Brownsville home after biting their owners is quickly running out.
Shelter directors said they'll evaluate the dogs, and those considered unadoptable will have to be put down.
The 10 days are up on Sunday and already three puppies have died.
The remaining dogs have been under strict medical watch.
Despite some misperception, shelter officials want to assure the public adoptable dogs were not euthanized to make room for these dogs.
Shelter Director Robert Dippong said the dogs came to the shelter after biting their elderly owners when they were fighting for food,
They were immediately placed in the quarantined area of the shelter.
He said that area has about 35 large kennels, apart from the regular population - where there's another 100 kennels.
Dippong said some of the dogs are still scared of their new environment, but other are starting to come around.
Daily testing has not shown any diseases in the dogs, but it will be up to trainer to determine if they are safe for adoption.
"it really depends on the observation period,” Dippong said. “You know there's a lot of animal bites that happen by accident, you might step outside and the dogs asleep, you step on it's tail and it'll bite you out of it being scared, it depends on every case - we have adopted animals that have bit, but we let them know that the animal was an animal bite case"
By law, any animal brought in from the street must be kept alive at least 72 hours.
The owners of the dogs signed them over to the city of Brownsville, and although when an owner surrenders their dogs to the shelter, there is no required waiting period before it's put down.
Dippong said they will try to socialize these dogs first.
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