SAN ANTONIO — A San Antonio woman made the tough decision to euthanize her sick puppy last year. Turns out, her puppy was never put down. Now she wants her dog back.
“I adopted Beau from Lost Dogs in September of 2022,” Kristie Pereira said.
Kristie Pereira said her puppy, Beau was always by her side. She had rescued it when she lived in Maryland. But just six weeks of being his mom, she noticed something was off.
“He would have good days and he would have bad days, after a while the bad days were more frequent,” She said.
She eventually took him to his veterinarian who she said suspected it was a neurological problem.
“He got to a point where he couldn’t get on and off stuff by himself,” Pereira said. “He couldn’t lift his back legs, you know I was carrying him around everywhere, he couldn’t hold his bladder anymore.”
After multiple visits including one to the animal emergency room, she was told it would cost up to $12,000 to figure out what was wrong with Beau and the procedure would be risky.
“I talked to neurologist and they told me the same thing,” Pereira said. “If we do all of this there’s a very slim chance of finding something wrong with him and even if we find something wrong with him there’s even a smaller chance that we can fix him.”
Pereira said she was told then by multiple veterinarians to consider euthanasia.
It was March 2023 and she decided to give Lost Dog and Cat Rescue Foundation a call to explain what was happening and ask for advice.
She said the rescue was very understanding and showed compassion for her situation.
Weeks later, on a Friday, she made the decision to put Beau down. She called her vet but was told they did not have any open appointments.
She said she felt she had to do it that day, so she went to the Montgomery County Animal Shelter in Derwood, Md.
The shelter advised her after she had signed paper work that she would not be able to be with the dog as he was being put down.
“I mean it was really tough, even though this year it was still hard thinking that you put him down,” Pereira said.
Beau Was Not Put Down
Since then, she moved to San Antonio. In May of this year, she decided to visit home in Maryland and thought to check the rescue’s website to see what dogs were up for adoption.
“I’m scrolling and that’s when I see Beau,” Pereira said.
The rescue had named him Amos. He was alive and healthy.
“The ages match up and I scroll through the photos, really in disbelief,” She said.
The rescue said they got a call from the animal shelter’s veterinarian about Beau being surrendered and gave them the opportunity to pick Beau up.
The rescue picked him up days later and said veterinarians discovered he had liver issues all along. They raised money and spent about $7,000 on surgery and treatment.
Beau, now named, Amos was put up for adoption in April.
Pereira said she immediately reached out to the shelter and was told she would never get him back.
“They’re saying that they don’t return dogs to the previous owner who has surrendered them,” Pereira said. “While I think that’s a great policy, I don’t think that it’s necessarily so black and white.”
The shelter told us, “It is not in the best interest of a pet to send them back to an owner who gave them up, especially for euthanasia.”
Pereira said she never wanted her dog to die but she was just trying to do what she thought was the right thing at the time.
“I’m hopeful I will get him back, I don’t know how or when but I do feel like I will,” She said.
As of Thursday, Beau is still up for adoption and on the website. Pereira, meanwhile, has had no luck making contact with anyone at the shelter to discuss the situation further.