Maricopa County Animal Care and Control is bracing for the possibility of a facility-wide lockdown. Their decision is hinging on the deaths of three dogs and a quick moving bacteria at the Mesa shelter.

Key to their decision says Jose Santiago of Maricopa County Animal Care and Control is whether all three deaths are linked.

One autopsy report has already confirmed the first dog had streptococcus zooepidemicus, a fast-growing and deadly pneumonia for dogs.

“We have gone through and started vaccinating the animals that aren’t showing signs of the upper respiratory infection, and we are medicating the ones that are showing signs," Santiago said.

Santiago says they are making plans to evacuate animals from the east to west shelter if the two other dogs tests are positive.

That will be a challenge he says with both shelters already at capacity.

As the animals are vaccinated and on the mend, he is asking Arizonans who can provide a stress-free home to consider adopting.  As stress, he says, undermines the pets’ immune systems.