Posted on 09/07/2010 9:07:21 PM PDT by The Magical Mischief Tour
MEMPHIS, TN (WMC-TV) - A woman claims the Memphis Animal Shelter euthanized the dog she wanted to adopt because it had nasal congestion.
The dog's name, Lil Bit, came from the description 'The Little Begging Dog.' Ann Mitchell, who tried to adopt Lil Bit, said the nickname came from the way the animal greeted people.
"She would sit up with her little paws like she was begging," Mitchell said.
After seeing a picture of the dog, Mitchell called the Memphis Animal Shelter to inquire about adopting her. When she called, Lil Bit was still there.
"I said, 'Good. Will you please put a hold on her for me, and we'll be out there Saturday morning,'" Mitchell said.
Mitchell visited Saturday, though Lil Bit's adoption status changed because of health issues.
"They said nasal congestion," she said.
But the shelter still allowed Mitchell to meet Lil Bit.
"She did not have a runny nose," she said. "She did not have matter in her eyes. She did feel a little bit warm. She had a cough made worse by the leash."
Mitchell said staff at the shelter told her Lil Bit had to be put down.
"I said, 'When I turn this dog loose, how long will it be before she's dead?' She said, 'probably within five minutes,'" Mitchell said.
So Mitchell begged to adopt 'The Little Begging Dog.'
"'Sick, dead, whatever...I would sign a release, releasing you from any responsibility,'" she told Shelter staff.
But Mitchell claims the vet at the shelter wouldn't budge, and Lil Bit was put down.
Mitchell wants changes at the shelter.
"I would love to see it privatized," she said. "Let them take donations."
Animal activists plan to attend the Memphis Animal Services Advisory Board meeting tomorrow to discuss Lil Bit.
"How did it smell?"
"HORRIBLY!!!"
I think we’ll be hearing a lot of stories like this coming out of nursing homes once ObamaCare kicks in. Grandma had a stopped up nose so...
What a cute dog. What a shame.
My (neutered) tomcat Timmy seems to be thinking right now that he wants to scratch the eyes out of the people who killed Lil Bit.
I adopted Timmy from a county shelter and they had operated upon him to remove an undescended testicle and he was recuperating at the time. This place would have killed Timmy too. This shows to go ya that not even all bureaucrats are heartless... but way too many are.
Mitchell: “I want to adopt the dog. Can I?”
Shelter: “Yes, but but do hurry since rigor is beginning to set in.”
No I live in Memphis and they arrested the shelter employees last year. It has a horrible reputation right now. I won’t even go there to adopt anymore. I went to Southaven, MS instead and got a cat there.
Symptoms.-Distemper attacks dogs in different ways, but the most familiar form is that in which the membranes of the eyes and nasal passages are affected, the principal symptom being a catarrhal discharge. Any attack of this kind is usually preceded by listlessness and lack of appetite. The patient avoids the light and courts solitude. All the symptoms of a common cold then manifest themselves, as sneezing and a dry, husky cough.
They never heard of antibiotics? When I adopted my cat from the shelter he had the same thing and they just sent amoxcillin with him. There was an outbreak of some type of URI going around the shelter. Clavamox is even better. And there is also a type of eyedrops that can be used as nose drops for infections resistant to antibiotics but I can’t remember the name right now.
The outrageous thing is that nobody can be fired over this, because they are government (union) employees. The shelter management is livid, but nothing can be done.
The madness of public employee unions caused these deaths.
Friend of mine had already paid for a cat and went home to pick up his cat carrier. By the time he got back 45 min later they’d just put the cat down due to a mistake in paperwork.
dunno If he was like many of us when we have a cold, we just wanna die.
It turned out that simple _kennel cough_ had been left untreated and developed into double consolidated pneumonia.
She was hacking up stuff that looked like gobs of cured rubber cement.
A week on Amoxicillin and she was right as rain, even though the night we went to fetch her from the airport, I honestly didn't think she'd live til we got home.
Her breathing felt like a Husqvarna pressed aganst my chest.
Plus, if their shelter is like ours, -one- case of distemper means ALL the dogs get a needle, no exceptions.
They just killed dozens of cats a few months ago because *one* cat in the shelter had it.
Well, so far as I can tell, we have the word of a random woman who thought the dog was cute, against the word of a person trained in veternary science who actually examined the dog.
Is there any reason why we should accept the woman’s opinion that the dog wasn’t sick, instead of the Vet’s claim that the dog was too sick and should be put to sleep?
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