With tears in his eyes, holding his cell phone Tony Wang says, “This is a photo of my dog, it was taken yesterday before yesterday.”
Wednesday, when Tony Wang took a picture of his dog Moses, he had no idea it would be his last.
Weeks ago, a maintenance worker came into Wang’s backyard unannounced and Moses bit the worker.
The Wangs were ordered to take Moses to Tazewell County Animal Control.
“They said that they would like to keep him for 10 days under quarantine to make sure that everything was safe with him,” said Jennifer Wang.
But Thursday morning, the couple got a call that an animal control employee confused Moses with another dog and euthanized him, a call that left his owners baffled.
Tony, recounting his conversation with the employees, said, “I asked him why did you still euthanize him? He told me he was not thinking, he said he didn’t verify, he just went ahead and did it.”
Tazewell County Animal Control issued a statement to WMBD, saying ”On August 7th, Tazewell County Animal Control mistakenly euthanized a dog that was being held in our facility on a 10-day bite quarantine.
Tazewell County truly regrets this error. Tazewell County will be reviewing policies and procedures to prevent any such occurrence from happening in the future.”
Memories of the dog in his favorite spot and pictures with some of his best friends wont help erase the pain Tony and Jennifer felt when they walked into the room and saw his body lifeless.
“If he needed to be euthanized which he wasn’t, he deserved to be with his family,”said Jennifer. “We should’ve been the last face he seen, instead of a stranger poking him with a stick.”
Moses’ family is now trying to figure out whats next. They have been reaching out to lawyers in hopes that someone will take their case but so far, they have not received any responses.
