A Texas family is devastated after their dog was euthanized after it ran away from their home.
Gunner, a 13-year-old Labrador, disappeared last Tuesday in a rural area in Denton County, north of Dallas.
The family owns eight hectares of land and generally allows their four dogs to roam freely around the property.
But it wasn’t until Gunner was called for his dinner and he didn’t respond that the family began to panic.
“At that point I started to panic, so I jumped in my car and drove around for almost five hours,” said John Gilcrease, Gunner’s owner. KTVT.
A Texas family says they are devastated after their pet was euthanized after it ran away from their home
Gunner, a 13-year-old Labrador, disappeared last Tuesday in a rural area of Denton County, north of Dallas
He discovered that Gunner had been taken into care at a nearby shelter, the Linda McNatt Animal Care and Adoption Center.
“He’s in a safe place. They’re going to feed him. He’ll be glad to see me in the morning,” Gilcrease said, thinking to himself.
However, the shelter was closed on Wednesday, so Gilcrease was asked to pick up his dog on Thursday morning, but he was late.
When Gilcrease returned to pick up Gunner as agreed, he had already been euthanized, despite the shelter’s 72-hour hold on stray animals.
Gilcrease explained that the shelter initially refused to give him a straight answer as to what had happened to his beloved pet.
Finally the director of the shelter came admitted to having the pet put to sleep.
John Gilcrease, pictured with his wife, says he and his family are devastated
Gilcrease tries to generate attention to file animal cruelty charges against the shelter
The shelter explained that they decided to forgo their usual 72-hour policy to “alleviate animal suffering” and put Gunner to sleep, much to the surprise of his family.
In a statement, the shelter attempted to justify its actions by saying that Gunner was “geriatric, severely restricted in his movement and had no control over his bladder and bowels,” and was therefore euthanized.
The shelter explained that they decided to move away from their usual 72-hour policy to “alleviate animal suffering.”
Gilcrease believes the medical problems the shelter found with Gunner stemmed from fear.
He claims they said, ‘Your dog was old. He had arthritis. He can barely stand up. He pooped and peed in his pants,’ and I said, ‘because he’s scared,'” Gilcrease said.
“My children are damaged. I am damaged. I can’t stop crying.”
Gilcrease claims he didn’t even get an apology for what happened and was given Gunner’s body in a plastic bag to take away
Adding to the trauma, Gilcrease claims he wasn’t even given an apology for what happened and was forced to take the dog’s body away in a plastic bag.
“I think Gunner’s last moments were, ‘I’m scared. Someone picked me up, someone took me to a place I don’t know. Where is my dad? And why am I lying on this cold table? And why are they killing me?'” said Gilcrease, who is now pushing for animal cruelty charges against the shelter.
The City of Denton has asked the shelter to review its policies and procedures and share the findings with the community.