Heartbreak After Shelter Tells Family They Euthanized Dog. 1 Day Later, Told She's Alive
The thought of having your dog whisked away from you or banned from living in your city would have most owners up in arms.
It’s horrible to live in fear of having your dog reported, knowing that any day it could be taken from you, but that’s the reality for some dog owners.
BSL, or breed-specific legislation, has caused many headaches and much heartbreak for pet owners. As reckless owners cause problems in their communities with poor stewardship of their particular dog breeds, the punishment affects everyone, regardless of how responsible the owners actually are.
North Little Rock, Arkansas, enforces BSL. Pit bulls, even mixes (and/or dogs who even resemble banned breeds), are not allowed.
The Ancel family has a pit bull/Labrador mix named Iris. She is a friendly pup, even good with their baby. The Ancel’s yard was being accessed recently as crews replaced a sewer line that ran through their property.
“They laid sod, packed all the dirt in well, picked up any trash they may have had, everything was great other than one thing,” Eric Ancel wrote in a post. “My fence gate does not latch half of the time, some times latching with no probs others times not.”
That resulted in Iris getting out. Ancel went outside to see two cop cars parked on the street, with Iris rounding the corner of a house nearby in the neighborhood. Apparently, a family on their street had been terrified of the dog and called authorities, who then contacted animal control.
Despite Ancel calling his dog back immediately and Iris being friendly and saying hello to everyone on scene, animal control arrived and informed Ancel that his Iris wasn’t legal. Eric said he knew, but he’d been actively searching for a new home outside city limits.
Neighbors who saw what was going on and knew the family and Iris came out to interact with the dog, perhaps in a bid to show how friendly she was, but none of that mattered.
As Eric understood it, he was presented with two options: “All of my efforts were denied and basically had two options, sign her over to be put up for adoption or go to jail. Was told we would have three days to take action (whatever that may be?) And that she would be held at the North Little Rock animal shelter.” Left with little choice, he let her go to the shelter.
The next morning, Natalie Ancel went to the animal shelter, only to be told that Iris had been euthanized.
“We work immediately trying to get that dog adopted out,” the city’s Director of Communication, Nathan Hamilton, told KARK. “If it’s been determined that it’s an aggressive dog, the rescue organizations won’t take it.”
The shelter informed Ancel that Iris had been deemed aggressive, and had been put down as a result. Obviously, Ancel was shocked. “You put down my dog?” she asked.
“Had this dog been vicious, my 7 month old would not be anywhere near her,” Natalie said. “Had I known signing this piece of paper that we thought was a release was going to kill my dog, I would have given you 300 dollars on the spot.”
Apparently, the two options they actually had were to either relinquish Iris to the shelter, who would try to rehome her through a neighboring city’s shelter, or they could pay to get Iris fixed, up-to-date on vaccinations, tattooed, and sign paperwork promising to rehome her elsewhere.
Thankfully, though the paperwork had been filled out to have Iris put down, she hadn’t actually been euthanized yet.
“In what can only be described as a miracle, we received a call today stating there had been some major confusion within the animal shelter,” Eric wrote in an update. “Come to find out, iris’s euthanization documents had been filled as if she was up next to be put to sleep, but for unknown reasons the procedure never actually took place. So on file it showed that she has already been terminated but she was alive and well in the back.”
“This was a major mistake, which they are aware very aware of. We just spent the last 2 hours reuniting with and visiting iris, as well as speaking with the director who took full responsibility for not only the clerical mistake but for the actions and failure to follow protocol during the encounter Monday evening.”
The family is now following the official procedure to get Iris fixed up and ready to look for a new home outside of North Little Rock. Hopefully, all this press will help her find a new home where her owners don’t have to deal with BSL.
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