Workers at a Brooklyn animal shelter euthanized a lost, elderly dog simply hours after it was generated by a good Samaritan — breaking the hearts of the owners who said 19-year-old Leona was worthy of an opportunity to live out her life.
Every animal owner’s worst problem started at 9 a.m. on March 12 when the French Poodle Maltese — all 9 pounds of her — in some way slipped out of her Briarwood, Queens home.
“She had done this in the past, but she always comes back or someone always brings her back,” a sad Ericka Leon, 24, informed The Post.
But by 1 p.m., with still no indication of Leona — who wasn’t using a collar “because she had gotten a bath the day before” — Leon ended up being significantly concerned, and published a photo of her missing puppy on Ring Neighbors, a social networks app that links citizens.
Within minutes, somebody reacted with a post that had actually increased on the Animal Care Center of New York City’s Lost and Found web page, including a photo of Leona — relabelled Ellis by the shelter — and stating she’d been discovered “in the middle of [a] busy road” near to Smedley Street, simply a block far from the Leon family home.
“I kept calling [the ACC] and no one would answer … I just patiently waited for them to call me. I knew she was there so I was just waiting for the call,” Leon remembered.
At 2:30 P.M., the family might lastly breathe out. Someone from the Brooklyn ACC shared the bright side — Leona was safe.
“They called me super excited, saying ‘We found your dog!’ And I’m excited obviously because I heard my dog was in the shelter – I thought my dog was good,” Leon said.
Thirty minutes later on, their world was turned upside down.
“They proceeded to slowly tell me that they took it upon themselves to get Leona checked out by a veterinarian and … they just made this decision to euthanize her,” Leon said, her voice splitting.
“I’m offended because they made it seem like my dog was alive and well when they called around 2:30 P.M,” however records later on revealed she had actually been put down at 1:10 P.M.
“I feel like my emotions were played with,” she said.
The city-funded shelter has actually declined to explain the time disparity to the family. “And they won’t even tell me the [time] when my dog walked into that facility,” she said.
An ACC vet figured out the pooch was suffering and required to be put down.
A physical examination showed “that she was in a very debilitated state and suffering from progressive neurologic symptoms,” firm spokesperson Katie Hansen informed The Post. “Leona was seen spinning in circles and was wobbly when walking.”
The choice to euthanize is secured by New York State lawhowever breaks ACC’s guideline, which is to hold roaming animals for 3 days to offer owners time to recover them, according to their website.
“Within only an hour or two, they made this decision on their own to kill my dog because she was spinning in circles – and to them, that was suffering?” Leon sobbed.
The family said she was simply revealing indications of old age.
“We knew all about these symptoms, but we couldn’t treat them because a vet, years ago, told us Leona would not survive [treatment]and to simply let her live her life until she gave out,” said Juan Leon, who is Ericka’s sibling and who matured with Leona from the time she was a puppy.
“We were well on our way to planning Leona’s end-of-life. … She was supposed to die on our terms – that was our decision to make – and this shelter took that away from us,” included Juan, 23.
Picking up their cherished animal brought more injury. They were handed an acknowledgement card in addition to a cardboard container with her lifeless body.
The Leon family prepares to object the firm’s actions at a 1 P.M. Saturday in front of the shelter at 2336 Linden Blvd.
“The protest is to fight what happened to my dog and that if shelters like this are still going to be up and running, the proper procedure should be taken,” Leon said.
For Juan, the point of the demonstration is to spread out awareness “that this could happen to any dog,” he said.
