SCOTT CITY COUPLE QUESTION HANDLING OF DOG THAT WAS LOOSE

SCOTT CITY -- The owners say it was a prize golden retriever puppy, 9 months old, and already trained to retrieve. The Humane Society of Southeast Missouri said the animal was sick and had to be destroyed.

Now the owners, Orley and Betty Jackson of Scott City, have contacted their lawyer. "They picked up that dog and they killed it," Orley Jackson said.

The dog was picked up on May 21 in Scott City as a stray with another of the Jackson's dogs, a husky. They were taken to the Humane Society shelter in Cape Girardeau by Scott City animal-control officer Scott James.

Betty Jackson said they contacted James a few days later and he told them the animals had been taken to the shelter. She said she couldn't reach anyone at the shelter over the Memorial Day weekend, and when she did find someone she was told her retriever had already been adopted.

Betty Jackson said she demanded that the Humane Society contact the person who had adopted the dog and get her animal back. A short while later she was told the retriever had been euthanized three days after it was brought in because it was found to have canine distemper, she said.

"A dog can't get that sick in three days that it would have to be put to sleep," Betty Jackson said.

Jhan White, Humane Society director, said she initially lied to Jackson about where the retriever was because she was afraid Jackson would become violent.

"As out of control as that woman was there was no way I was going to tell her that puppy had been euthanized," White said.

White said she and her veterinarian technician, Stacey Garcia, determined the dog had distemper because of visible symptoms. She said the dog was showing a discharge from the eyes and nose and was lethargic.

"When you see a 9-month-old retriever puppy that can't even lift its head off the floor you know that dog is in bad shape," she said.

White said distemper is easily controlled through vaccination shots, but once a dog acquires the disease it almost never survives. She said distemper is a virus that develops about 10 days after the dog comes in contact with it.

Because of how contagious the disease is, it can be transmitted through air from an infected animal. White said she had no choice but to put the animal to sleep. The retriever could have spread it to 50 other animals that were housed at the shelter that day, she said.

White said she doesn't know if the distemper was spread while the dog was in the kennel. Many of the dogs that were in pens near the retriever were euthanized because of overcrowding.

The Jacksons' husky was one of the animals that was in the kennel at the same time as the retriever and was released to its owner.

White said despite the availability of the vaccine, most of the animals brought into the Humane Society have not been vaccinated. She said the Jacksons were in violation of several state and city laws prohibiting animals from running loose and owning animals that are not vaccinated.

She said pet owners need to know that this is the time of year when diseases like distemper are most often encountered. She said euthanizing the Jacksons' retriever was kinder than letting it die from distemper.

"Toward the end their backs get rigid and their jaws clench and unclench," White said. "It's horrible. It's an awful thing to see."