Family’s Dog Mistakenly Euthanized
The Tsougarakis family was relieved when they found their lost dog at an animal shelter, but were then completely heart broken to find out their pit bull was mistakenly euthanized.
The one-and-a-half year old pit bill ran away on Saturday, and he was found at the Mesquite Animal Shelter on Wednesday. There were no tags or any identification on the dog.
The family went to pick their dog up at the Texas shelter on Wednesday, but the employees told the family they had to come back with documentation and photographs to prove the pit bull belonged to them.
They came back the next day, but they were too late. The shelter had already euthanized their dog.
The shelter said the staff employee should have placed a special hold on the pit bull as soon as the family came to claim him. The Mesquite Animal Shelter said they will review procedures to ensure a situation like this will not happen again.
Source: MyFoxDW.com
September 5th, 2007 at 8:05 am
Texas isn’t looking too good when it comes to animal welfare right now ~ seem to be lots of folks whose first reaction to a stray/lost/found animal is euthanasia! Too bad somebody forgot to mention that this poor dog had a family. Too bad this poor dog didn’t have a collar/tags/identification. Too bad that another animal had to pay for human negligence with his life.
September 5th, 2007 at 10:04 am
this is so sad, I want to cry. On the link above my Fox.com their is a video, how sad. They signed the papers the night before saying it was their dog & came early the next day to prove it. They didn’t say anything about a chip. It was a pb all bp dogs i’ve have had had to have a chip. I would like to hear more of her story about why no collar or tags before I blame her.maybe she just gave it a bath. My Melanie’s fur is so long that no matter what collar I use she knots her fur around the collar & it hurts her. I take it off most times at night in the house & try to always remember to put it back on in the day when she can use the doggie door but some times my husband forgets. No matter who is wrong this is sad. Why are these cases we keep reading about always being put to sleep at night when most people arn’t around? I would want to see my dog even if she was dead to make shure it was realy my dog or cat.
September 5th, 2007 at 10:33 am
This is infuriating and there is NO EXCUSE for the Mesquite Shelter to euthanize this dog the way they did. NO EXCUSE!!!!!!! It makes me want to go to that shelter and kick some ass, seriously! And by the way, although I was born and raised in the Midwest, I LOVE TEXAS and wished I still lived there (Austin) . I have lived all over the U.S. building Cable TV many years ago and traveled and lived all over the U.S. From New York to California and Texas to Iowa and just about everywhere in between. There are cruel and ignorant people in every region of the U.S.A. just as there are Compassionate and good people in every region. No reason to single out a single region as more ignorant than the next. That view actually speaks volumes about the person who thinks that way.
September 5th, 2007 at 10:41 am
what the shelter did is reprehensible.
however- ” no tags, no id” and how did the dog, particularly a pit bull , who over populate shelters and tend to get euthanized sooner then later, get loose? there’s NO EXCUSE for untagged and uncollared dogs( and uh aren’t those rabies tags required in most places?). if you care about your animal you make damn well sure theyre appropriately id’d if they leave the house at all.
as someone mentioned in an earlier post- you have to go to the shelters in your area physically if your animal is missing- a call isn’t good enough, and bring photos and if it’s a dog youre suppose to have a damn license too. when i rescued a roommate’s abandoned pets i was trying to save and i didnt know where she dumped them i sent everyone out with photos- i think it made all the difference in them giving us the cats right off.
who in their right mind would euthanize animals during business/ adoption hours? of course they do it when theyre closed to the public. they’re kill shelters that they public created out of their irresponsibility. it’s particularly bad PR that could stop any of the animals being adopted. with human’s and unnatural death it’s out of sight ,out of mind.
September 5th, 2007 at 10:48 am
By looking at the news for some time now, it seems absolute stupidity is running rampant across the country in most things. There is something being lost in human beings.
September 5th, 2007 at 11:05 am
Before jumping on the judgement bandwagon, my dog Dusty has managed to ditch his collar while in the fenced back yard. Had he also gotten out, he would have been sans collar and tags. Shit happens. In my mind the onus lies squarely on the animal “shelter”. Judging from what I found on the net, this isn’t the first time they’ve been quick to kill a pet:
http://dallas.craigslist.org/pet/410557875.html
September 5th, 2007 at 11:39 am
Uhm….I hope they fired that employees a$$.
September 5th, 2007 at 12:52 pm
Sorry if I gave the impression that I was singling out any area ~ but there has been quite a bit of press recently about disturbing animal events in Texas. I realize there are wonderful folks and not so wonderful folks all over.
September 5th, 2007 at 1:33 pm
I was the one who mentioned that you really have to haul your butt into the shelters [and not just the one that services your city either] EVERY DAY.
You MUST assume the worst: that the tags were lost, that the microchip is unscanable, that the city lost your records of ownership, that the animal was picked up by some kind-hearted soul but turned into a shelter in THEIR neighborhood in the next state. And something important: don’t assume the animal will be turned in as a stray [which are given more time before being killed]. The person turning in the animal could for whatever reason [and it happens] turn the animal in as an owner relinquishment, which significantly cuts down on the time the animal is held.
And above all: do not delay. Not for one moment. Take days off from work and lie if you have to about why you’ll be out.
So today, not tomorrow, get out the camera and photograph your pet and the vaccination records and the ownership records. Make copies and put them in an envelope in a safe place at home. Because dogs DO get loose.
September 5th, 2007 at 1:41 pm
Re:
“as someone mentioned in an earlier post- you have to go to the shelters in your area physically if your animal is missing-”
Actually, the article said they did go to the shelter. They just were sent home by the staff to get proof. In the interim, the dog was euthed. Clearly, the shelter failed to mark the dog as waiting for pickup. This is really awful and SAD.
Stefani
September 5th, 2007 at 2:56 pm
This is HORRIBLE!! I have a sneaking suspicion that this would not have happened had this dog not have been a Pit Bull. This is a classic case of shelters discriminating against the breed. My heart goes out to the family. This absolutely should not have happened. The fact that the dog did not have on a collar has no bearing at all. You take off your dog’s collar when they get a bath & it is possible to forget to put it back on right away. This does not constitute a bad owner.
September 5th, 2007 at 3:12 pm
My girfriend’s daughter is a paid worker at a kill shelter & they euthanize in the day when they have more workers. They do this in a different section & people don’t even know it is being done. I guess all shelters are different.
September 5th, 2007 at 3:53 pm
catmom5, you are a good lady! I truly enjoy sharing mutual concern over our furkids with all of you.
September 5th, 2007 at 4:03 pm
If you haven’t looked at Lynne’s link - please do. There are some truly bad, bad folks working at this shelter. This appears quite deliberate on the shelter’s part.
September 5th, 2007 at 5:15 pm
Marie said:
“I have a sneaking suspicion that this would not have happened had this dog not have been a Pit Bull.”
I agree. There are a LOT of horrible hateful people out there who would love to see every Pit Bull dead. I don’t doubt it at all, that poor dog wound up in the hands of Pit haters.
I hope that family sues the shelter and gets some justice for the pain they suffered for this.
September 7th, 2007 at 6:01 am
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