Abilene Texas Shelter Prematurely Euthanizes Family's Dachshund

Animal Services, Abilene, Texas

There it is.  That "E" word.  While we hate to report stories like this, maybe getting the word out can help prevent a similar situation from happening to your beloved four-legged friends. 

A family moves to Abilene.  Their 7-year-old Dachshund named Latimer escapes the new yard, is found by a good Samaritan, but Latimer bites the good Samaritan's daughter. Latimer is quarantined at the pound.  Meanwhile, owner finds good Samaritan through a lost dog ad, is referred to the pound, and after several visits and phone calls is told to pick up her dog in 10 days.  Latimer euthanized on Day 9.  Excerpt from the Reporter News:

Pamela Hernandez, Latimer's human, said the woman told her “he was listed as a stray, no one came in to claim him, and I said, ‘I talked to you every time I came here, every time I called, I talked to you.”

Other shelter employees also knew Latimer had an owner, Hernandez said.

“Any time you go to see a dog in quarantine, one of the attendants has to let you in,” Hernandez said. “There were two different guys who let me back there who saw I was petting him and identified him as my dog. Everybody failed to write it down despite my attempts to get them to write it down.

“Because nobody wrote something down, my dog is dead.”

Latimer became a part of the Hernandez family seven years ago, she said, when her husband gave the dog to her as a wedding anniversary gift. Latimer befriended her other two dogs and had become her 3-year-old son’s best friend, she said.

“He was a part of us; he was a part of our family,” Hernandez said. “He was an amazing dog.”

Read all of this troubling story at the Reporter News.  It seems like when things go wrong, they go horribly wrong.  Our hearts go out to Latimer's family and friends.