In Phoenix, Arizona, the Maricopa County Animal Care and Control is under fire again, after employees mistakenly euthanized another dog that had been reserved for rescue with AZ Husky Rescue. A timid husky named Moscato was accidentally euthanized. Tragically, this was the third dog mistakenly killed at the shelter in the last four months.
The co-founder of the rescue Allison Nicolosi, had been at the shelter with another volunteer on Monday to evaluate two dogs – Moscato and Floofy.
Floofy was a crazy hyper puppy, and Moscato was just timid and scared, but did not have one mean bone in her skinny little body. We had tried to work internally to find fosters the last few days and with few options yesterday, decided to put out a public plea. Earlier in the day, we received an email from the alt placement department asking if we could pull them. Before posting the plea, we replied to that same email to say we were working on these girls and were going to try to get pulls in overnight. We got an email back that said ‘that would be great,’ confirming they knew we were working on them.
AZ Husky Rescue Facebook
Foster families for both dogs were procured, and Allison had done video calls and home visits preparing the new foster volunteers to care for the dogs.
And then the last email response had been received paving the way for the dogs to leave the shelter and pull both Moscato and Floofy.
Whenever we have done so in the past, we would get a confirmation email in the morning. I didn’t see that email this morning so I was very concerned and sent a follow up email…
AZ Husky Rescue
A quick response confirmed the pull for Floofy, but there was no mention about Moscato. Allison immediately responded, and the response was tragic:
Moscato already had another outcome
AZ Husky Rescue
So what happened? After all, this frightened dog had not been a risk to anyone and did not deserve to die. She wasn’t injured nor was she in pain or ill. A well-respected rescue had lined up a foster home for her.
The problem was the email address was incorrect – that is she had not emailed the inbox for pulling Moscato off the euthanasia list.
Moscato was not the first dog mistakenly killed at the Maricopa Animal Care and Control. In January 2023, Cerrit had been a three-year-old young male that had been on the euthanasia list that same morning. The owner of the dog had contacted Rotten Rottie Rescue and asked if Shelly Froehlich, who runs the rescue, could help him. Tragically, Cerrit was euthanized that morning; it had been a mistake.
The Maricopa Animal Care and Control blames the rescue for the mistake with Moscato, however the rescue submitted pull requests for two dogs; only one was spared.
Moscato paid the ultimate price, like so many others who were perfect candidates to be made available for adoption. Run with the angels Moscato. We are so sorry you missed out on life.
Read Cerrit’s story here.
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