Woman’s dog euthanized due to shelter foul-ups

Malia Spencer

Friday, Aug. 15, 2003 | 9:51 a.m.

A breakdown in the system that tracks animals at Dewey Animal Care Center killed Melody Polson's dog.

Polson's German shepherd, Freedom, and her Dalmation, Valentine, managed to get out of her back yard while she was away. The dogs were picked up by Clark County Animal Control and taken to Dewey Animal Care Center on Aug. 5, and a series of mistakes began.

The next day, according to Dewey Animal Care Center spokesman Jim Lusk, Freedom was mistaken for another German shepherd that was scheduled to be euthanized.

"This was a catastrophic system breakdown," Lusk said.

The problems began when Freedom was brought in. Usually animals are given a card with a digital picture of the animal, Lusk said. The printer for the cards was broken that day and the card was filled out by hand.

Next, because Freedom had tags, he should have received a tag report that would have been sent to administrators. But the center was running three days late on tag reports, Lusk said, so that system check failed.

The final mistake came when Freedom's collar was removed, Lusk said. That never should have happened, he said.

Polson said the explanation is not good enough for her.

She said Freedom was an integral part of her family and has been since she adopted him a year ago. He was even going to be part of her son's wedding and walk her daughter-in-law to be down the aisle.

"We thought he would look charming in a tux," Polson said.

Now that part of her family is missing Polson wants to change the problems she sees in Dewey's system.

She has written a letter to the director of Dewey suggesting changes the shelter can make to prevent this mistake in the future.

"There are real issues that need to be addressed," she said.

She suggested that the shelter have color-coded tags that are put around the animal's neck, not on a collar that can be removed.

Lusk said he has seen Polson's ideas. He said the shelter has tried color-coded tags in the past but they did not work. He said the animals would rip the tags off and that they would clog drains in the center.

Lusk said a catastrophic mistake like this occurs once every 10 months, or to about one of every 20,000 animals the shelter sees.

Polson said that's one animal too many.

"He was put down for no apparent reason," she said.

A spokesman for the Animal Foundation, Mark Fierro, said unfortunately mistakes like this can happen with such a high number of animals passing through the system.

"It's a terrible thing that happened and our hearts go out to the family," he said.

Polson said it will be some time before she is ready to replace Freedom.

She said she has no plans to pursue legal action.

"What good would that do?" she asked. "It would take money from an already-strapped organization."

Still, she said, she doesn't know how to get over Freedom's untimely death.

"I miss him," she said. "He was a snugglebug."