Owner Upset After Dog Put Down By Animal Control

A Charlotte dog owner told Eyewitness News a mistake made by Mecklenburg County's Animal Care and Control led to his dog's death, but leaders at Animal Control said the owner is to blame.

Joe Gibson said he thought his dog, Diesel, was outside playing last Tuesday, but the pit bull had escaped after a phone repairman left the yard's gate open earlier in the day. Gibson lined streets with more than 150 fliers and also checked the Animal Care and Control website, but said it was difficult to tell if some of the dogs were Diesel because of the angles of the pictures and the large number of dogs.

So, he went to Animal Care and Control to see the dogs in person, day after day.

“Still, no Diesel, no Diesel, no Diesel," Gibson said.

He also posted a picture of the dog on a bulletin board for lost dogs in the hallway of the Animal Control center.

On Monday, Gibson's friend noticed a picture on the website that could have been Diesel, but the dog had just been euthanized because it had been at Animal Care and Control too long. Gibson asked employees if he could see for himself.

“I walked around the corner and I see my dog laying there, dead,” he said.

It turns out that Gibson's dog was in a section for injured dogs, which is not generally open to the public, the whole time.

“No one told me that my dog was right over there in another room, sick because he got hit by a car," he said.

Mark Balestra, the director of Animal Care and Control, told Eyewitness News that Gibson is to blame because he never got a microchip for his dog. He said that’s a responsibility of dog owners and makes it much easier to find dogs.

Gibson said Diesel never had a microchip because he never left the house.

Balestra also said a picture of Diesel was on the website since Feb. 2 and that if Gibson pointed out pictures that could have been Diesel to employees, they would have looked into each one.

State law requires that stray animals be held for 72 hours before they are evaluated to see if they are healthy enough to be adopted. Gibson's dog could have survived his injuries, but he was euthanized because Animal Care and Control has a policy that doesn’t allow pit bulls to be adopted out to the general public.