Hero Dog In Tragic Euthanasia Mix Up

[k9angel]

http://au.news.yahoo.com/thewest/a/-/break...lly-euthanised/

She's been through warzones, shot at by the taliban and defied death so many times she was named "Target" by US soldiers.

She once even heroically sniffed out a suicide bomber at a military base, scaring and biting him while he wore 11 kilograms of explosives.

But there was one death she couldn't dodge, The Daily Mail reports.

A clerical error at a New Jersey dog pound saw the death-defying German Shephard get euthanised by mistake.

"When it comes to euthanizing an animal, there are some clear-cut procedures to follow," said Ruth Stalter, director of the Animal Care And Control centre.

"Based on my preliminary investigation, our employee did not follow those procedures."

Target became the friend soldiers stationed in Afghanistan, who took them in and treated her as a pet, along with two other dogs, Sasha and Rufus.

"I just can't believe that something like this would happen to such a good dog," said Sgt Terry Young, the owner of the shephard.

Target and the other two dogs became heroes after scaring a suicide bomber that was trying to sneak into a military base in Afghanistan.

The three dogs barked, bit and scared the attacker while simultaneously waking soldiers nearby. The bomber was forced to detonate his explosives outside the base, potentially saving 50 lives.

Sasha was killed in the blast that injured five soldiers, and the wounded Target and Rufus were treated by medics as if they were injured soldiers.

Target was treated like royalty by military personel, and was allowed to return to Phonenix, Texas to live with Sgt Young and his family.

The dog continued to enjoy fame, appearing on "Oprah" in a show about amazing animals.

Last Friday, Target escaped from the family backyard.

Sgt Young put out the call to find the missing dog, putting out missing dog notices and contacting TV stations to help him find the wantaway dog.

Sgt Young managed to find Target's picture on the website used by Pinal County's dog catchers to return missing pets to their owners.

He thought the shelter was closed on the weekend, only to turn up on Monday and find that Target had been euthanised by mistake.

Sgt Young said his four-year-old son couldn't understand the loss.

"My four-year-old son just can't understand what is going on with Target and keeps asking me to get the poison out of her and bring her home. They don't want her to go be with God yet," a teary Sgt Young told the local CBS TV station.

Target's cremated ashes will be returned to the family.

So very sad .

R.I.P. girl

[Esky the husky]

[altheau]

How incredibly sad. RIP brave girl

[B-Q]

Oh wow, so sad.

[chi4me]

That is just heartbreaking

[Tapferhund]

Extremely heartbreaking

I hope "that" employee loses his/her job and gets sued by Targets owner.

[Cazstaff]

Oh how tragic That poor family.

Imagine having to deal with the anger you would feel at the same time as shock and grief if that was done to your dog, just terrible.

RIP Target

[Kody's_Mum]

Oh how awful poor Target!

RIP girl.

[poochmad]

I think that is friggen terrible.

Poor family.

Edited November 18, 2010 by poochmad