Dog euthanized amid misunderstanding

Communications problems lead to the mistaken euthanization of a young Weimaraner dog Wednesday at the city's Animal Services shelter.

[Jim Maynard]

Of all people, Animal Services screws up with Mrs. Hyde? C'mon, Morons! Excuses abound. And idiocy with it.

[Sad]

Loretta followed the same procedure she always has for many years and in the hundreds or thousands of animals she has rescued from Animal Control. They screwed up, not Loretta. How dare they pretend this was not the normal procedure bewteen the 2 agencies. This is about the third mistake kill I have read about at Animal Control in the last few years. They need to get it together.

[Citizen EP]

How many times has this happened?
Animals that have been claimed put to sleep?
I can recall at least 2 other cases in the last 3 years.
Remember the Doctor's dog that was put down by mistake.
The animal shelter is a disaster.
The facility is great the people running it could screw up a rock fight.

[giovanna]

They need to replace the people that run Animal Services with competent professionals.

Making mistake after mistake and then apologizing every time is not enough.

Mark my words, this is going to happen again with the same people working there.

[citizen]

This city agency is a joke, from the bosses to the agents on the street. More than just dogs and cats. Also keeping important information from the puplic.

[Communication Breakdown]

"Animal Services director Eduardo de Castro said it wasn't clear that Hyde wanted the dog."
It looks like another case of the effects of bilingual education. Thank goodness de Castro's highest responsibility is animals.

[-------abc]

If I was Ms. Hyde,I would have asked Eduardo and Rebecca to show me the dead weimaraner.It was not that they didn`t understand {da english}.They probably sold the dog to one of their friends. Eduardo and Rebecca need to take more ESL classes.They didn`t understand {NO KILL ,OK?}.Get rid of the ticks Eduardo and Rebecca. I am sure there are recent graduates that need a job.

[blk mkt]

-------abc wrote:

If I was Ms. Hyde,I would have asked Eduardo and Rebecca to show me the dead weimaraner.It was not that they didn`t understand {da english}.They probably sold the dog to one of their friends. Eduardo and Rebecca need to take more ESL classes.They didn`t understand {NO KILL ,OK?}.Get rid of the ticks Eduardo and Rebecca. I am sure there are recent graduates that need a job.

This is what I have heard so it cannot be confirmed because it came by word of mouth.
My understanding from what I've been told is that when a really good animal comes in that could be worth money, i.e. dog, cat, bird or something exoctic. Those employees immediately call friends or family that may want such an animal so that they can get first choice. Not to keep the animal but to sell it to a third party. The media should investigate that. They should investigate how many times an employee has adopted an animal and verify if the animal is still in their posession.

[bingosmommie]

Alas, Animal Control at it's best. Well their best is just not good enough. Animal Control oversees the lives of loving, affectionate, living, breathing pets. What they should be overseeing is the lost and found box at the mall. The only thing they can lose or destroy there would be a jacket. This happens all too often with Animal Control. Depending on space availablity/staffing, many pets are euthanizd within hours, or in some instances, immedately, once arriving to the facility. And then they look you in the eye and lie to you. Who is policing Animal Control?

[VPV]

wow el paso is goingto hell in a hen basket...time to stand up ...animals being killed by mistake or sold via shaddy dealings and then we have police officers on the streets that are not are if current laws..(chicos incident) ...

[VPV]

wow el paso is goingto hell in a hen basket...time to stand up ...animals being killed by mistake or sold via shaddy dealings and then we have police officers on the streets that are not aware of current laws..(chicos incident) ...

[dante2810]

Wait wait wait...

Didn't the City Council pass a law that forced me to get my dog chipped (not that I wouldn't anyways) so that stuff like this wouldn't happen? So that we could cut back on the number of pets put down? So that owners could be found?

Typical of this city. And anyone that has to deal with this city knows exactly what I mean.

[blk mkt]

dante2810 wrote:

Wait wait wait...
Didn't the City Council pass a law that forced me to get my dog chipped (not that I wouldn't anyways) so that stuff like this wouldn't happen? So that we could cut back on the number of pets put down? So that owners could be found?
Typical of this city. And anyone that has to deal with this city knows exactly what I mean.

The truth behind that ordinance was probably only to generate extra money. And where is that money?

[so sad]

The dog WAS chipped, spayed, etc. The people who had recently adopted him from the rescue league were contacted but refused to pick him up because of the fee. Rescue League was supposed to get him at the end of the owners time period to pick him up if they did not pick him up. The people who adopted him should be ashamed. They are responsible for the dogs death too.

[TMZ]

Animal control officers went to the address that was on the dogs microchip? I highly doubt that. We lost our dog this weekend and when I called Animal Control on Monday and gave them our lost dog's microchip number they told me that she wasn't there, but that I needed to come in and check because sometimes their officers don't "scan" the microchip. Luckily, someone found our dog and took her to a vets office who scanned the microchip and called us.

[TMZ]

dante2810 wrote:

Wait wait wait...
Didn't the City Council pass a law that forced me to get my dog chipped (not that I wouldn't anyways) so that stuff like this wouldn't happen? So that we could cut back on the number of pets put down? So that owners could be found?
Typical of this city. And anyone that has to deal with this city knows exactly what I mean.

From what I understand, their database is missing a lot of dogs and cats microchip information.

[they called]

Read the news report. They called the owners.

[TMZ]

Everyone that has a dog or cat microchipped, needs to call "Homeagain" and register their dog with that service because if a vet scans the microchip NO INFORMATION will be in the system if the microchip is not registered. Animal control database is very different than the one that the vets us. It isn't the same system. Homeagain costs 14.99 a year, but it is well worth it.

[James Dean Silva]

Seems the easy fix would be to post all incoming dogs on the internet with as much fyi as possible and that would solve everything. All dogs would have their histories recorded to prevent blk mkt dealings if such is the case. Where are the ankle biters...........ouch......

[TMZ]

they called wrote:

Read the news report. They called the owners.

I did read it and it stated "He said officers went to the owner's home as registered on the microchip,".