Family claims they missed deadline to get puppy back from Harris County Animal shelter by 24 hours
HOUSTON - State law requires all tax-funded shelters to keep an animal for a minimum of three days before that animal can be put up for adoption or euthanized.
The only exception is owner surrenders.
"It just doesn't seem like it's right," said Amber Reynolds.
Back in July, a Pit Bull named Ava had 4 puppies. Her owners the Reynolds family kept one and named her Daizee.
Then on October 24th Daizee disappeared
"Our kitchen caught fire in our apartment, and she escaped, and we weren't able to locate her," Reynolds said.
On October 16, two days after Daizee went missing Reynolds says she contacted Harris County Pets.
"I spoke to a lady at 3:57 p.m., and she informed me they did not do a pickup at this address, nor did they pick up a dog like Daizee," said Reynolds.
Reynolds says she put out flyers hoping to find Daizee. A neighbor called to say she saw Harris County Animal Control pick Daizee up on October 14 in the 25000 block of FM 2100.
On October 20, Reynolds says she reached out to the shelter again.
"She had a positive outcome her exact words were," said Reynolds.
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That positive outcome meant Daizee had been adopted one day after the required 3-day hold had passed.
"The shelter told me they had contacted them, and it was primarily up to them if they were going to bring her back or not," Reynolds said.
She says the shelter refused to give her any information about the adopter who apparently does not want to part with the dog.
"It's heart-wrenching," Reynolds said. "There was nothing I could do ."
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"After she was gone it hurt Ava, I could tell in her eyes," said Reynolds's 13-year-old son Holdyn.
He says his younger brothers are heartbroken.
"They've just now stopped crying about it," he said. "They were just really sad about it.
"There was a mistake made and that's why this happened," Amber Reynolds said, "I don't feel like I'm alone I feel like it's happened to more people than just me."
"I'm hoping that we get our dog back," her son said.
Harris County Pets issued the following statement saying in part efforts were made to contact the owner, but were unsuccessful.
"According to Harris County Pets records, the dog in question (ID# A599666) did not have a microchip or any other form of identification when she was impounded by animal control on Oct 14. Our animal control officer on call made a thorough attempt to locate her owner at the apartment complex she was discovered but was unsuccessful.
"The dog was held for the required 3-day stray period before she was posted for adoption. She was adopted on October 18. There is no record in our system of Ms. Reynolds visiting or calling our shelter until October 20, six days after the dog was impounded."