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Euthanized dogs may have been put down by mistake

MARTINEZ, Calif. -- A Northern California animal services agency was investigating why two dogs may have been mistakenly euthanized after local rescue groups proposed saving at least one of the animals earlier this month, CBS San Francisco reports.

A 4-month-old pit bull named Barbie should have been taken off Contra Costa County Animal Services' list of animals slated to be euthanized on June 18 but wasn't for still-undetermined reasons, Steve Burdo, a spokesman for the Martinez-based animal department, said Thursday.

"Everybody at Contra Costa Animal Services is heartbroken," Burdo said. "We're going to take this opportunity to learn and improve our process so this never happens again."

The dog was identified as a candidate for euthanasia after a series of evaluations by the department's staff and medical team, Burdo said.

Rescue groups called the department expressing interest in saving the dog, which Burdo said should have triggered a process in which the dog was taken off the list for euthanasia.

Karen Conover, founder of Beau's Bridge Club, said her animal welfare organization was among the groups that proposed rescuing the dog.

Conover said Petaluma Pet Pals had reached out to Animal Services first, and it was anticipated that the dog would be given to that organization.

Word later got around in the tight-knit animal-welfare community that the dog was euthanized, Conover said.

"There were two rescues interested in this dog, and the shelter manager overrode those notes and said to have her killed by the end of the day," Melissa Farley Law of Petaluma Pet Pals told CBS San Francisco on Thursday.

"I literally cried for three days," she said. "I couldn't even look at her picture without crying. l just felt like I let her down."

The agency is also looking into the death of a second dog named Tommy, who was also euthanized at around the same time.

"We don't believe at this point that that was a mistake," Burdo said. "According to our records, there was no rescue group officially lined up to pull that animal."

A dog named Tommy is seen in an undated photo provided to CBS San Francisco.
A dog named Tommy is seen in an undated photo provided to CBS San Francisco.

Despite having concerns, Conover said she was not pointing fingers at the county department. She said the agency has "bent over backwards" to help Beau's Bridge Club rescue animals in the past.

Burdo said the department is investigating the incident internally.

He explained that the agency has nearly doubled its live animal release rate between 2011 and May of this year.

"We're saving more lives than we ever have before," Burdo said. "What happened ... is an exception rather than the rule. And that's not to say that it was OK. We've got to identify the problem and fix (it)."

County officials said they hope to wrap up their investigation by the end of the week.

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