A Midland resident hopes to raise awareness after her dog was mistakenly euthanized at Midland Animal Services (MAS), NewsWest 9 reported.
A seven-month-old pitbull, Luna, went missing for five days before the owners were notified that she was under the care of Midland Animal Services.
"In the morning we went to go fill up her bowl and the other dog's bowl," said Luna's owner, who wished not to be named.
Since she didn’t have a microchip, the shelter kept her and “tried to keep her healthy,” according to the NewsWest 9 report.
“This animal came in, wasn't microchipped and was put in the isolation and quarantine pods," Christen Bolotov, a MAS staff veterinarian, said. "That is the pods that intake animals come into to protect like for quarantine until they're healthy.”
The staff then discovered multiple animals began showing signs of sickness, requiring them to euthanize the group of animals.
“The pod that they were put in was presumed healthy, and there were no signs of disease at the time," Bolotov said. "Within the day that the animal was there, other animals became sick with a presumed infectious upper respiratory disease and the entire pod was euthanized.”
“Normally, a stray animal taken in by MAS can't be euthanized for 72 hours, but staff said the infectious disease warranted a quicker euthanization,” the report stated.
City manager Tommy Gonzalez will oversee the investigation surrounding Luna’s death and possible modifications to the protocols and systems followed by Midland Animal Services.
“Anytime you have any event that occurs where you want to maybe have a better outcome, you have an after-action review," Gonzalez said. "So we'll have an after-action review of this just like we would have anything else and then see what we can do to improve processes and systems. We've already mentioned one key way to do that, and that's more microchipping for the animals.”
Luna’s body will be cremated and returned to its owners, who want to see changes that will prevent this from happening to any other animal in the future.
"We need to bring awareness for other dogs so that Luna doesn't die in vain," the owner said.