In Phoenix, Arizona, the Maricopa County Animal Care and Control is under fire after employees mistakenly euthanized a dog that had been reserved for rescue with Rotten Rottie Rescue. A spokesperson for MCACC said it was a tragic mistake that the rottweiler, named Cerrit, had been euthanized.
Cerrit was a three-year-old young male that had been on the euthanasia list that same morning. The owner of the dog had contacted Rotten Rottie Rescue and asked if Shelly Froehlich, who runs the rescue, could help him.
He was a perfect dog, never had he shown aggression to anyone; he always did what he was told and was the perfect dog in every way and the other day, somehow his tooth punctured their 7 year old daughter’s face. The little girl said she didn’t know what happened – only that the dog didn’t mean it. It sounded like some sort of accident. I don’t know, but they were looking for reassurance that their dog was not a vicious dog and that they should give him another chance.
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Shelly agreed to go to the shelter and meet Cerrit and promised the owner she would make sure the county didn’t euthanize him. The family wanted to meet Shelly at the shelter, and from there, planned to send Cerrit to a trainer to give him a second chance.
Cerrit was a scared dog, and quite shy, but according to Shelly, he was not aggressive and should not have been on the list to be euthanized; so Shelly decided to pull the dog for rescue, and was told the shelter would neuter him, and she could pick him up the next day.
However, this morning I got a text message from someone that said he was euthanized. I told them it had to be a mistake that they would not have euthanized him because I pulled him and he was going to a foster on Thursday, so they asked me to double check. I did check and my heart went into my stomach when I found out that they did indeed kill him for no reason.
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Kim Powell, the spokesperson for MCACC, apologized for the heartbreaking mistake and said it was unfathomable to her and her staff that the dog had been killed. A staff member had missed a critical step and did not see that Rotten Rottie Rescue was scheduled to pick Cerrit up after he had been neutered.
They missed the notes!! How I don’t know. If you were a person who wasn’t evil and cared about dogs, not only would you make sure that you checked the notes, but you would double checked and triple checked the whole file to make sure you were not killing a dog that had somebody that wanted him! I have written to the county supervisor, and the shelter manager and told them what had happened and that someone needed to be fired. I received an email back offering their apologies and that someone would be held accountable for their actions. What that means exactly, I don’t know.
But this is what you can do to help make sure it doesn’t happen again. Send an email to Bill Wiley at [email protected] and tell him that you do not believe that such a careless reckless person should be given the job duties of something so important and that you want that person fired. There is no place for that kind of person at MCACC. That person has to be evil. I have been in tears all day over his loss. It just makes me sick that this happened. I wish I had taken better pictures of him yesterday. His teeth were so white they almost glowed. The kind of white that only a puppy to have. I bet he was no more than a year old. He was just scared!
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Powell stated the person responsible for the young dog’s death is very upset. The problem, however is that this is not the first time a dog was mistakenly euthanized. In December, another mistake at MCACC led to another dog’s death.
The shelter will be reviewing their protocol to make sure mistakes like this don’t happen again. The employee responsible for sending Cerrit to his death will be facing disciplinary action. That however doesn’t bring back the life of a young dog who should never have died.
Rest in peace Cerrit. We are so sorry that humans failed you. So many people tried to save you.
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This dog was killed on purpose! They KNEW he had a rescue but decided he was dangerous! Shelters pull this crap all the time!
Fire this incompetent individual. Cerrit, your life mattered and you deserve justice.
Where I work, we triple check important documents to verify that they are still accurate. No one is allowed to “act on their own”……
I am so sorry that Cerrit was completely failed by humans.
Cerrit, I know that you are in Heaven. Please look for MacKitty and join his snuggle group. RIP amongst loving friends.
Maybe they should just stop killing dogs altogether.