If your family’s house burns down with several pets inside in November, and the county seizes your surviving pets in December alleging neglect and cruelty, you might be thinking January really couldn’t be much worse. But if you’re the Wade family in Amherst Co, VA, you’d be wrong:
The Amherst County Sheriff’s office confirmed accusations Thursday that the County’s Animal Shelter accidentally euthanized two dogs.
Those dogs belonged to the Wade family, who lost their home to a fire in November.
Amherst County took them from the family last month saying they were being mistreated. Reports say they were tied to a tree in bitter cold temperatures.
According to Mr. Wade, the county seized Sweet Pea and Bell without giving him any reason and said they were just trying to help him. I would think they meant “help” as in “your house just burned down and maybe you can’t take good care of your surviving pets right now as a result”. But then I’d be wrong:
“I swore then when they took my dogs. I said I know what’s going to happen – you’re going to end up killing my dogs,” said Wade.
And the Wades say that’s just what happened. They say the pound told them this week that their dogs were accidentally euthanized.
“They weren’t trying to help me. If they were trying to help me, why are my dogs dead?” said Wade.
Although we have very limited information here, I can’t help but wonder if the county could have offered to truly help the family care for their surviving pets while they sorted their lives out after the fire. If there was proven neglect going on, was it the type that can be addressed with education and monitoring for compliance? Or was it so severe that the county had to obtain ownership of the dogs via the courts and rehome them? Sadly we’ll never know, since – Oops.