Shelter dog didn’t have to die

Mack (not the animal’s real name) was an older dog recently impounded at the Mat-Su shelter and could become a euthanasia candidate because of space, but an officer had intimated that this was unlikely, and anymore, mostly only irreversibly sick or dangerous animals were put down.

I offered to pay for Mack’s release back to his family and arranged and effected contact with them. When this failed I went to see Mack to determine that he was not in danger by inquiring with shelter staff. There were a number of empty cages that I was told that were available to for new arrivals.

A note had been arranged to be received by the vet in case any possible danger arose threatening Mack with euthanasia. Because difficulties were keeping me from taking him out myself, I left for then and began putting public ads up to locate an adopter. I was led completely to believe that all was safe at present for this dog.

However, when I called the pound later I was sickened and dumbfounded to learn Mack had been euthanized literally 1 1/2 to 2 hours after left the shelter. The cause written under his ID # was “contagious disease.”

When I walked this dog that same afternoon he was certainly in perfect health. The date this occurred was just exactly prior to moving into the shelter’s new facility.

There is no way that anyone is going to convince me that in 1 1/2 hours this dog was suddenly found to be toxically dangerous to other animals. If there was a contagious possibility pending or some lab result, what was he doing in with the others? He was there because there was no contagious disease. End of story.

Someone, or many on, probably more than one, management level was either deceived or deceiving to cause this outcome. By the time it reached my level there’s no question that a major communications breakdown had taken place. Forget about where the blame lies. I for one advocate that the banned policy to inform concerned individuals in regards to an animal before it is euthanized be deactivated despite the difficulties it often causes. For sick animals it should be legal for them to be received into the responsibility of willing private parties and politicians should activate funds to provide for these legal fees that would clear away the red tape that keeps this from being possible.

What happened to Mack happens to many others and was a collective crime by various modes of public and bureaucratic negligence.

There will never be any way to make it all right to shuffle these incidents away and pretend that it is just the way things are.

We are not always responsible for the conditions of our society but we often accept them through indifference, lack of any kind of living empathy and/or the preoccupation with self-interest. What people allow to happen to the weakest and non-voiced members of their communities effectively defines who they are.

I’m sure there are many citizens and shelter employees who care a great deal about these creatures and this ongoing and problematic issue. Perhaps this story of Mack will more concretely define and direct an awareness and focus toward preventing future such ones.

I have continued to grieve over this and to beat myself over the head for the mistake of allowing myself to listen to employees whom I had no reason to suspect were being unwittingly misguided in the information they were simply relaying back to me themselves, until I could no withgo the writing of this public letter.

Jim Derricks is a Wasilla resident.