An Oklahoma dog owner is grieving the loss of her dog who was accidentally euthanized by the Oklahoma City Animal Welfare. The canine was to undergo a neuter procedure at the shelter, however, the tragic mix-up led to his untimely demise.
Animal Shelter in Oklahoma City accidentally euthanized dog
According to News 9, the deceased dog — named Spotty — was among the dozens of dogs picked up by the Oklahoma City Animal Welfare earlier this month.
As per KOCO 5 News, Spotty had escaped from home, leaving his owner — Melissa Evans — hopeless about ever reuniting with him. Thankfully, the OKC Animal Welfare found him and contacted Evans to inform her of the same.
However, the shelter told Evans that they first would have to neuter Spotty before releasing him, to which Evans agreed. When she went to pick up her beloved dog days later, the shelter broke the devastating news to her: They had mistakenly euthanized Spotty instead of neutering him.
“It broke my heart,” a distraught Evans shared. “I was like no, you have to, you [must have] made another mistake,” she added.
According to the OKC Animal Welfare Superintendent, Jon Gary, Spotty resembled the dog set for euthanization. Unfortunately, both dogs were staying in the same kennel.
“There were two dogs in this particular kennel…Very similar-looking dogs. Same coloring, same [gender], same breed type,” Gary stated.
Continuing, Gary explained: “We went into the kennel and mistakenly pulled the wrong dog out. And the wrong dog was euthanized.” Furthermore, Gary shared that the shelter staff are deeply regretful for making the fatal mistake.
To prevent a similar occurrence in the future, Gary shared the shelter will take tougher measures. “If two dogs look really similar like these two did, we need to do a good job of getting identification bands on them, some way to differentiate them from each other,” he said.
