Afghanistan dog hero accidentally euthanized

[nonconformist]

A dog rescued from Afghanistan after she alerted soldiers to a suicide bomber was accidentally euthanized at an Arizona shelter on Monday.

A Pinal County Animal Care and Control employee has been placed on administrative leave for failing to follow procedures and euthanizing the wrong dog.

The dog, Target, was recently brought over from Afghanistan by a soldier who had returned from his tour of duty. Target was featured by CNN for heroism after saving dozens of soldiers from a suicide bomber on February 11.

"She got her name because the Afghans we lived with were constantly trying to off her. She's been shot in the leg. ... The Afghans actually ran over her," Sgt. Christopher Duke said, who helped care for Target in Afghanistan and has adopted her packmate Rufus. "There's no killing this dog for sure. She's pretty much been through it all, " he said upon their reunion in July in Georgia.

Target's new owner, Army Sgt. Terry Young whose life was saved by the stray, helped bring the 2-ish-year-old from Afghanistan to her new home in Arizona. She disappeared from Young's home on Friday. Facebook postings requested help in finding her.

Animal Care and Control received a call about a stray female shepherd-mix dog in the San Tan Valley area on Friday. An animal control officer picked up the dog and brought her to the shelter where the dog stayed over the weekend. The dog was not microchipped or licensed with the county, shelter officials said.

On Monday morning, the employee mistakenly took the dog out of its pen and euthanized it. The dog was not scheduled for euthanasia.

<snip> more... http://news.blogs.cnn.com/2010/11/15/afghanistan-dog-hero-accidentally-euthanized/?iref=NS1

[Mojorabbit]

1. Oh Geez. nt

[Poll_Blind]

2. More's the pity that so many of our vets suffer the same fate, albeit more slowly.n/t

PB

[Bigmack]

4. My very thought...

I love my dogs more than most people love their kids, but it seems some people have no problem putting some of our finest into hopeless situations for crass political motives. Those "finest" get killed and maimed... for nothing.

We would shrink from doing that to our pets.

If my heart aches about this dog I didn't even know... how terrible must I feel for the humans.. good men and women... that we waste every day?

[Terra Alta]

3. What a heartbreaking story.. :( nt

[hlthe2b]

5. OHHHH, God...

This is an important story, but damn, I wish I hadn't read this last thing before I went to bed. I am just devastated to think of this happening. God.... I just don't know what to say beyond that. :cry:

[glinda]

7. Same here. This breaks my heart. This totally sucks big time.

[AtomicKitten]

6. Goddamn it.

:cry:

[Dyler Turden]

8. RIP, Target.

what a damned shame.

[BlancheSplanchnik]

9. that beautiful heroic dog

goddammit :cry: :cry: :cry:

goddammed stupid person. Why do people have to do so much damn harm? Why do we have to ruin everything, just because we're too stupid to pay attention to anything?

goddammit. Now I can't stop crying.

[Rex]

10. She was shot, run over and hunted

but got put down in the States by accident. Only in this fucking country.

[Tyrs WolfDaemon]

11. Bad Humans

We will howl for this brave cousin and hope she finds her place in the Wild Hunt.

[Democat]

12. Was this really an accident?

If this wasn't a well known dog, would we ever have heard about this? I wonder if there is an independent investigation or just some people inside of the organization who will cover up for whatever was going on?

[nonconformist]

13. It definitely makes you wonder how often these accidents happen.

We probably would never know unless the animal was famous or had an owner that went to the media over it.

[northernlights]

14. administrative leave? how about fired?

How do you "accidentally" euthanize a dog? :cry: :cry: :cry:

Well, maybe this will put some light on how we treat our war heros. :cry: :cry: :cry:

[kurtzapril4]

15. Let's see

The dude couldn't afford to buy a god-damn dog tag for Target's collar? He could've avoided the whole tragedy with a $3 dog tag. Name, address, phone number. You can make them yourself at kiosks in pet stores.

I feel waaaaaaaaaaay more sorry for the dog than I do for this guy and his family.

What the employee of the "animal shelter" did was unconscionable.

What the owner of Target neglected to do was just as bad. He is/was an irresponsible pet owner. Everybody I know with a dog has 2 things on the dog's collar....a rabies license, and it's owner's information.

[northernlights]

16. my comment was strictly about the dog.

But I didn't realize the lack of collar was due to cheapness, since my pc won't let me open the article. Although I'm surprised the article comes out and says the owner couldn't be bothered to buy a collar for his dog. I just figured he's one of those people who don't leave the collar on when the dog is inside.

You see I've had that discussion before. On the one hand there is the risk of an escape. On the other hand, there is the risk the collar will get caught on something when there is nobody there to free the dog. My solution is to have the collar loose enough that if it gets caught on something (say my other dog's tooth while they're wrestling around) the caught dog can slip out without a broken neck on the one hand, or a broken tooth or something else on the other. But I do understand the concerns of people who don't leave the collar on inside the house.

So I stand by my statement. How could somebody "accidentally" euthanize a dog?

[kurtzapril4]

17. I understand, Northern Lights

However, a well fitting nylon web collar will be much less likely to get hung up on anything. My neighbor's dog used to wear one of those chain collars. There is a chain-link fence separating my yard and hers. Zeba (the dog)likes to greet me at this fence when I come home from work. One day, the end of the chain got caught in the links of the fence. I was there, so I was able to free her right away. I told my neighbor and she went right out(and I mean right out) and got one of those wide nylon(web)collars. It's fit properly..two fingers width(3/4 inch) between the neck and the collar.

I believe the pictures of the dog show it had a collar. There was some kind of military insignia pinned on the collar, but there were no tags on the collar...no rabies, no owner info. It just boggles the mind that after all the trouble this guy went thru to bring this dog here, he didn't bother to get tags for the collar, let alone a microchip.

I have been, and am, a volunteer at the local animal shelter. When we get animals in that are tagged and/or microchipped, we are able to contact the owners immediately, and a happy reunion ensues! It's one of the best things in the world.

This was an epic fail on the owner's part. The fact that the animal control facility screwed up is awful, a beaurocratic fuck up. The fact that this person couldn't be bothered to have the proper ID on this animal, let alone check what the shelter's hours of operation were, is tragic. I put the blame mostly on the dog's owner for being clueless and irresponsible.

[Individualist]

18. I also put the blame on the dog's owner

In addition to what you've mentioned, the owner should have checked the animal control facility as soon as the dog went missing and left a description with them.

[northernlights]

19. the pic I saw looked collarless

but was an indoor picture.

Tags can do funny things -- can be hanging on the wrong side, get folded up under the collar, etc. And both my dogs have managed to lose their tags running around outside -- both id *and* rabies. They were on the correct loops and pinched closed with pliers -- and they still have managed to get them hooked on something? and pull them off.

As I mentioned, I haven't been able to read the article. I did get the impression that the dog had pretty recently arrived, and that they had pretty recently moved to Arizona (the snippet I did see said they got back together in Georgia and this happened in Arizona), so unless those impressions are wrong, I'm withholding judgement of the owner.

If owner came home from work and found dog missing, not a lot of time to get the hours.

Anyway, I can't think about it any more. The dog looks a lot like my Luna, who had been given 3 reprieves from being gassed in Georgia. It makes me heartsick....