A Cleveland brother and sister say their family has one less member tonight.
That's after they say Cleveland Animal Control made a mistake that cost a labrador retriever her life.
"Cleveland for a No-Kill City" member Beth Foster said, "Everybody makes mistakes and unfortunately in their line of work, when they make a mistake it's a mistake that can't be fixed."
Austin Rhoades tried to adopt from Cleveland Animal Control this past weekend. He said, "We got there on Friday. We found the dog through the No-Kill Cleveland site and fell in love with her picture. We got there, I brought my dog, she's a black lab, to meet her. They got along great."
So Rhoades and his sister filled out the paperwork to start the adoption. They were told to pick their new dog up from the vet Monday morning.
But Rhoades said, "They brought out a dog that was not our dog."
Rhoades was told his would-be dog was accidentally euthanized. He added, "I paid for the dog, there's no room for that mistake to be made at all."
But Foster says this same scenario has happened three or four times during the past month. So her grassroots group has a goal of making Cleveland a no-kill city by 2017.
She explained, "Ultimately what we have to change is the culture out there if that's ever going to be possible. Right now we have a culture out there that's kill and dispose. And we've got to change that mindset to save and adopt."
That's to make sure what happened to the Rhoades doesn't happen to another would-be family again.
Rhoades added, "I didn't want my money back. I wanted my dog."
He added he hopes the animal control officer responsible for the mistake faces some sort of disciplinary action.
Officer Smith with Animal Control tells us the pound is looking into making ID bracelets for all of the animals.
