Oberlin ? An estimated 1,200 dogs at a northwest Kansas kennel have been euthanized after an outbreak of distemper in Wyoming was linked to the operation.

Kansas Livestock Commissioner Bill Brown says the state started investigating a kennel near Oberlin in September after being contacted by Wyoming’s state veterinarian.

Brown says the Kansas Animal Health Department quarantined the kennel twice after distemper was diagnosed there. The kennel’s owner couldn’t sell any of the quarantined dogs and eventually couldn’t afford to pay for staff or upkeep of the kennels.

Brown says most of the dogs put down were adults. He says because of the circumstances, euthanizing the dogs was the only way to prevent the spread of the highly contagious disease.

Messages left at a phone number listed for the kennel were not returned.