i saw this story on the news yesterday. SO sad!

One would think euthanizing an animal is not taken so lightly as to make a mistake. There is paper work to read and check and double check. This employee shud never be in a position again to even be able to do this. Let her/him clean kennels. Absolutely no excuse for this . IMHO.

Saw this story a few days ago, and it made me sad. The lack of accountability is upsetting. If not for the dog being a hero dog, this employee might never have gotten in trouble and who knows how many they already put to sleep, by mistake...Day later , day sooner , who cares, right? That is unfortunately the attitude I encountered at Animal Control facilities.

"Slipped out of the yard."

Responsibility is squarely with the owner. Amazing that this dog wasn't hit by a car before taking his chances at the shelter.

I know it's not a popular opinion, but dogs need to be supervised in the yard. That means inspecting fencing regularly, padlocks on gates, and going to the yard with the dog every single time. Have my dogs made it out of the yard, yes. Did they get far? No. Not with me right there to call them back.

I'm not defending the shelter worker, but think the unfortunate death was more peaceful and pain free than being struck by a car and left in the street to die in pain. And that was more likely to happen when he 'slipped out.'

Responsibility is squarely with the owner. Amazing that this dog wasn't hit by a car before taking his chances at the shelter.

Yes and no.
Sure, the owner - some articles say the soldier returned from Afghanistan less than a year ago and probably has plenty on his plate to deal with , but regardless - sure, the owner should have gone an extra step to secure the dog better.

Animal Services are supposed to be a safety net for animals that got loose or separated from the owner. It happens, to the best parents and their kids, to the best pet owners and their pets.

But lets not blame the victim here. Once the animal was at Animal Services, the protocol was not followed. Plain and simple. People in that county pay taxes to keep Animal Control going, and should expect that AS employees follow the rules.

Stray hold is at least 5 working days.
Does not matter how and why the dog ended up at AS, once the animal was there - that dog was supposed to be at the shelter, safe, fed and attended to, for the however long the stray hold in that county is.

The blame is two fold but mostly with the shelter. That's what they are there for, as a safety net for lost animals who should not be euthanized for at least a week. But the dog should have been microchipped or at the least had ID on his collar. But I can see how the slipped out thing happens. In fact it happened twice in one day to me last week when I was in fact out with my dogs. I got a call from someone who said we have you dog. They were on their cell out side my picket fence with my Dachshund who was a foot away from me minutes before. Brought him in and tethered him till we found the breach. Meanwhile other dog was barking as usual when someone walked by. These people hollered over the fence ..we have your dog. I knew the other was tethered but this time my Boston mix apparently jumped the 4 ' high fence to "greet" the people and then ran to the gate to be let back in. First time in 2 1/2 years that has happened. Now i don't trust either one even when I'm out there.

One of my dogs has 3 microchips (Banfield, AVID, Home Again), another has 2 (AVID and Home Again), and the rest have 1 (Home Again). They are all up to date on my contact information through Home Again. My dogs are *never* without their tags on- rabies, microchip(s), and ID. They can't get the collar with tags off. While a few have gotten out of the yard/invisible fence upon very rare occasion, they could *never* be accidentally euthanized because of the microchip with current contact information. While the shelter shares some of the blame, the owner is also at fault for not properly identifying their pet.

Absolutely, this could have been prevented. A microchip would be great - whatever the brand, and so is the tag

But back to the shelter employee. Now who is to say the same employee would not have done the same careless mistake once the owners were contacted and were in route to get to the shelter?! The dog was there what, a day? So, with this careless shelter worker attitude, really, it is out of the realm of possibility to have the owner be contacted and on his or her way, all while "the wrong" dog is being euthanized. It is not like dogs in the shelter are immediately moved to a different "owner found" cage..

And unfortunately, there have been cases of shelter workers failing to scan for microchip. The protocol in most county shelters is to scan on intake and (sad) before euthanasia. I read a report and do not remember exact numbers, but a large number of shelter workers routinely failed to scan the animal the second time, before the animal was put to sleep.

While we the owners should do everything in our power to prevent these tragedies, we should expect accountability from county animal shelters.
I do not argue that more could have been done by the owner, but I do not want this discussion to shift the focus from the real problem - the lack of accountability and often the lack of care among shelter workers.

I had three kittens put to sleep by county shelter today, after kittens were spoken for by rescue/me...I cant help but wonder about some of the people who choose to work there. I know some care. But I am afraid that there are just as many that do not.

Olya..Very sad about the kittens. I know this stuff happens all the time and it's just heart wrenching. My dogs are microchipped and never ever are w/o their collars which have their names , my name, and telephone number which is how these people called me.

Take a look at this article. Well said!

THE TARGET OF TARGET’S DEMISE
November 21st, 2010 by Kelly Gorman Dunbar

By now most of you have heard the story of Target, the hero dog originally from Afghanistan who was accidentally euthanized at Pinal County, Arizona's animal control last week in a case of mistaken identity. You may have also heard that the shelter worker who put Target to sleep has since been fired for making the tragic error.
My heart goes out to Target’s family for their loss, this is indeed a sad story, but I’m dismayed to see the shelter and shelter worker cast as the scapegoats or worse, as villains in this tragedy. They did indeed make a terrible, irreversible mistake but the real problem lies much deeper than this single, highly publicized incident.
I’m going to put a few things on the table that I hope will spark discussion we all can learn from so that Target’s tragic end is not in vain.
Target was picked up by animal control as a stray because as a semi-feral dog from a third-world country she was not used to being confined to a back yard.
Target escaped from her yard and was found wandering the streets by a well-meaning neighbor who caught her and put her in his backyard and called animal control. This sad story could have ended right here if Target had been wearing an identification tag. The neighbor would have realized she wasn’t a stray and would have likely called her owner rather than animal control to pick her up, or, if she’d been licensed or microchipped the shelter would have easily been able to contact her owner to pick her up from the shelter rather than classify her as a homeless stray. But Target had no documentation, no tag, no microchip, and no license and therefore became just another “Dog Doe” in a system overrun with unclaimed animals.
Dogs can’t speak for themselves and accidents do happen. A lot of loss and heartache can be avoided by simply making sure dogs are tagged, tattooed, or microchipped.
Another disturbing aspect of this story is how the animal control facility and, more specifically, a shelter worker are both being fully blamed for the incident. Some are even going so far as to suggest that the shelter worker had control issues and actually enjoyed killing dogs, just couldn’t get enough. This sort of character assassination is appalling. I know hundreds and hundreds of shelter workers and none of them relish putting animals to sleep, even on occasions it appears to be the most humane option for an individual.
Municipal animal shelters do the sad, dirty work that most people simply put out of their minds. They take in every, and any animal regardless of the state they’re in and do their best with the resources they’ve got (or, more likely lack of resources) and make heartbreaking decisions on a regular basis regarding animals that others have either damaged or simply thrown away. They do what they can to clean up our society’s mess, albeit often too little, too late, it is far from a perfect system but the responsibility for the mess lies on the shoulders of our government and humankind in general.
The fact that we have over-crowded shelters full of unwanted and sometimes damaged animals, that we have underpaid, overworked, emotionally exhausted, often villainized shelter workers is a symptom of a much larger problem, and not the problem itself.
Make no mistake that the plight of animals is a people problem. From irresponsibility, to ignorance, to cruelty, animals are merely the recipients of the treatment of humans. We, collectively, are to blame. In a world where so many people are suffering, abused, undereducated, marginalized, infighting, battling, over-consuming, and generally just trying to survive with dignity… other animals don’t really stand a chance.
Rest in peace Target and all of the millions of other animals humankind has failed.

Here is a link that might be useful: Target

A child gets out while a parent is not watching for a few minutes. Gets bit by an insect, rushed to hospital, and instead of treating for a slight allergic reaction, the doctor administers the wrong drug and kills the kid.

Are we still obsessing with the parents losing sight of the child?

homeless stray is entitled to their homeless 5 working days stay. Vilify the owner all you want - and yes, I hope every one of you has their pet chipped and tagged - I know my outdoor cats are! - but the shelter worker did not follow the protocol. Plain and simple.

Excellent perspective in the article Ellie. The key is for people to learn from the mistakes made all around. Thanks for sharing.