Family Pet Accidentally Euthanized

CREATED Dec. 3, 2012

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  • A Desert Hot Springs man says his family dog was accidentally euthanized at the Coachella Valley Animal Campus. Video by kmir6.com

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A Desert Hot Springs man says his family dog was accidentally euthanized at the Coachella Valley Animal Campus.

The pet owner says his two dogs escaped the yard last Monday.
He found one in a neighbor's yard, and a couple days later his roommate found his other dog at the shelter.
Animal services agreed to extend its stay to December 5th.
He built a new fence and was preparing to bring the dog home when he found out Ky had already been put to sleep.
"I've never had a dog that would give you a hug like Ky would," said Desert Hot Springs resident, Shannon Eworonsky.
Ky was just two years old, and liked to play with three-year-old Abigail and the family basset hound.
But last week he was picked up as a potentially aggressive dog by animal services.
"I have a three year old daughter and the dog, she climbed all over the dog, he's never had an aggressive bone in his body."
Shannon Eworonsky built a new fence this weekend so he could get Ky back.
Animal services stopped by his home Monday and said it looked good.
But then, "As I was walking out to the car to go pickup the dog, the officer returned and said he had some bad news that my dog had been put down mistakenly on Saturday," said Eworonsky.
Riverside County Animal Services confirmed there was an agreement to extend the hold time on Ky to December 5th.
"It came to our attention today that a dog was possibly euthanized before the time that the owner could come in and claim the dog," said Deputy Director, Frank Corvino.
Animal services says they have systems in place to prevent something like this from happening.
"That's why we're so saddened by this, and shocked by this, we believe the systems that we had in place were working correctly, and so until we find out exactly what happened in this situation and we can address how to fix it," said Corvino.
And that's what Shannon says he wants -- to make sure another family doesn't lose their pet.
"We were all excited because we were going to go get the dog back, she was crying that she wants her Ky, and it's sad, it's sad that something like that could happen to a family pet," said Eworonsky.
Shannon says animal services offered him a free adoption, but he says that can't replace Ky.
The shelter did hold Ky for the state mandated period of 72 hours before euthanizing.
But animal services says they extend the time period when the owner needs time to pay fines, or fix a yard.