She named the puppy Beau and the two quickly became inseparable. Beau snuggled next to her as she worked, slept in her bed and even tagged along with her when Pereira would leave the house. But within weeks, it became clear something was wrong with the puppy, Pereira said.
A veterinarian concluded that the issue was most likely neurological. Blood tests did show the dog might have a liver problem, so Pereira was sent home with liver enzymes and told that she would “see improvement pretty fast” if Beau’s liver was the issue.
The dog’s condition only worsened. The dog’s veterinarian, the clinic’s lead veterinarian and an animal emergency room veterinarian all agreed the dog’s inability to control his bowels and lift his hind legs pointed to a severe neurological problem, Pereira said.
The cost to run a series of tests to find out, she said, was quoted as high as US$12,000 ($19,600). Despite the sticker shock, Pereira, 32, who works in digital marketing, said she would have found a way to pay it if it would save Beau.
Instead, she was told “‘there’s a very slim chance of finding what is wrong... and even if we do, there’s an even smaller chance of it being something that we can fix’,” she recalled.
That is when they began suggesting that it might be more humane to euthanise the puppy. She wasn’t ready to consider that option, she said, and held out for another month.
Throughout all of it, Pereira said, she was consulting staff at Lost Dog & Cat Rescue.
“Honestly, I mean, after I talked to them is really when I felt, you know, that I was going to be doing the right thing by putting him down,” Pereira said. “They really gave me that support and that encouragement that, although it’s hard, sometimes that’s the best thing to do.”
Following several sleepless nights with Beau clearly in pain, Pereira said she took him to Montgomery County Animal Services in Derwood, Maryland, in late March 2023 and paid $15 for him to be euthanised. She was told that the shelter’s policy does not allow people to stay with their pets as they are put down.
Dog not euthanised because vets didn’t think he needed to be
It was during a visit to see her mother in Maryland last week that curiosity sent her to the rescue’s website to check out dogs up for adoption. Then she spotted Beau’s picture. The puppy was bigger but had the same markings and bore the name the rescue had given him before she adopted him: Amos Hart, based on a character in the musical Chicago.
Calls to the shelter confirmed that her dog had not been euthanised after veterinarians there didn’t think he needed to be. The shelter instead called Lost Dog & Cat Rescue (LDCRF) and turned the puppy back over to them.
The rescue confirmed that on Friday in a written statement, giving an extensive timeline showing that its veterinarians found no neurological issues with the dog. After tests diagnosing a liver problem and a $7000 surgery – paid for through a GoFundMe campaign – the dog was declared healthy.
None of it was shared with Pereira, who said on Friday she would pay the $7000 cost to get Beau back. It took several days for anyone at the rescue to return her calls, she said, and when they did, it was not anyone Pereira had talked with before.
“The person that called me was so rude and just disrespectful and just being really nasty towards me,” she said, breaking down in tears. “Just saying, you know, that I abandoned him and that I left him to die. That I never cared about him.”
Pereira was told that the dog “will never go back to you”. Then the person hung up.
Rescue spokeswoman Chloe Floyd would not answer questions about whether someone at the rescue said those things to Pereira. But she defended the decision not to return the dog.
“LDCRF does not re-home an owner-surrendered dog with its former adopter/owner,” Floyd said in her written statement. “Our mission is to save adoptable and safe-to-the-community dogs from euthanasia.”
The rescue acknowledged that it had spoken to Pereira during her deliberation about whether to euthanise the puppy, but it said it had made clear to her the importance of taking the dog to a veterinarian that would allow her to be with the animal when it was euthanised. If she could not do that, it emphasised, the rescue would take the dog back.
The rescue and the shelter both faulted Pereira for not consenting to the extensive testing to see if it was suffering neurological issues.
Caroline Hairfield, executive director of Montgomery County Animal Services, said that it is bound by contract to return surrendered animals back to the rescue and that its hands are tied.
Hairfield said of Pereira that “everyone feels for her” but that it’s up to the rescue whether it will return the dog to her.
“That’s a civil issue between the two of them,” she said. “We haven’t had the animal in our care for a year.”
The dog remained available for adoption on the rescue’s website on Friday.
