Animal pound mistakenly kills dog before owner's return

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A staff error at the Manukau animal pound saw a dog mistakenly put down before its owner was able to collect it.

Kaos, a sharpay cross belonging to Manurewa woman Michelle Griffiths, was impounded on September 17 and put down on September 25.

"I got a little handwritten card - they said they would hold her until the 26th," Miss Griffiths said.

"I went to the pound to pick my baby up and they said 'She was killed yesterday, sorry we got the kill date wrong'."

Barry Gillingwater, managing director at DSS Animal Management which operates the animal shelter, said the mistake appeared to have been made by an ex-staff member.

He said a "hold" flag, placed on Kaos' record to indicate no action should be taken until further notice, was mistakenly deleted.

"It appears the owner spoke to a person to make arrangements to pick the dog up and the staff member hasn't dotted their i's in the system," he said.

"If it was a current staff member it would be a subject for dismissal."

However, Mr Gillingwater said the staff member in question had been dismissed on Monday for unrelated reasons relating to poor performance.

He said the company owed Miss Griffiths an apology.

"We don't delight in putting dogs down."

Mr Gillingwater said Kaos was originally impounded due to welfare issues, but Miss Griffiths believes the situation could have easily been avoided.

She said although Kaos was seized on grounds of abandonment, she had simply been at work and thought her pet was safe at home.

Christine Breen, a trustee of animal welfare group Chained Dog Awareness NZ, said the case showed that animal control staff had failed in their duty.

"Kaos definitely hadn't been abandoned. It would have been easy to find out that Michelle lived on the property."