Monica Lopez's pit bull Dada

(Photo : Photo from Monica Lopez)

Monica Lopez, a dog owner from Illinois, was devastated when an animal shelter mistakenly euthanized her pet after an unfortunate animal control mix-up ended in tragedy.

Dada, Monica's pet pit bull, went missing on December 8, 2020. When she tracked him down at the Champaign County Animal Control, she quickly made arrangements to pick him up on Monday, January 4, 2021. The delay was because she could not go pick him up immediately because of the holidays. 

.Pit bull

(A well behaved pit bull : Photo by Mike Burke)

In a related news, homeless man risks life to rescue animals at a burning shelter

She felt relieved after knowing that her beloved companion has been found and is now "safe." But, her relief was short-lived after she received the horrifying news that her beloved Dada was mistakenly euthanized just before she went to pick him up.

The dog was put down on Christmas day of all times, even after the shelter told her that he was staying warm and cozy - the shelter assured her that he was safe.

According to the Champaign County Executive Darlene Kloeppel, the shelter workers accidentally pushed through with the routinely scheduled mercy killing because they were not aware of Monica's plan to go and reunite with his pup after the holidays. Despite being an extremely rare type of error, Kloeppel still ensured that it would not be ignored.

Human error, along with the holidays and stuff going on vacations, miscommunication was the reason behind the tragic end of Dada the pitbull. To avoid this from ever happening again, the animal shelter added more precautionary steps in the animal control procedure to prevent such horrible tragedy ever to happen again.

Despite the shelter's admittance and its move to create more safety measures, Monica said she would take every possible step to seek justice. The justice that her beloved Dada deserves.

"Dada will get justice, and I know nothing will ever bring him back, but this cannot happen to any more pit bulls," Lopez said.

Why are dogs being put down?

The practice of euthanasia is done in many animal shelters up until this very day. However, the intent behind these sad acts might not always be devious. Most animal shelters try their very best to put down a few dogs as possible. To add to the effort of not killing the animals, they also add more measures to delay the routine euthanasia.

But, why are these shelters still continuously euthanizing dogs and other stray animals they caught? These animals may have been put down because of overcrowding. Animal shelters can only hold too many.

These institutions rely on the goodness in animal lovers' hearts to adopt their rescues to have more room for new rescues. Unfortunately for some of these animals, not everyone gets adopted.

Another reason for euthanasia is the health and/or behavior of the animals in their custody. To avoid an outbreak of disease, the shelter had to put the sick animal down to prevent spreading the sickness to the entire shelter. The same principle used on euthanizing severely injured animals, a sickly or dying animal also had to be put down as almost no one adopts those, and they take up too much of the shelter's resources.

Finally, aggressive rescues also had to be put down to avoid risking the shelter workers' safety and the other animals in it.

READ NEXT: Chonky Kitty: The Internet's Unhealthy Obsession Over Obese Cats

For more news update about the latest animal trends, don't forget to follow Nature World News