A North Carolina family are heartbroken after their dog was euthanized when cleaners put him in the wrong kennel at a shelter.
Rhea Varker's 16-month-old Australian cattle dog Blaze had to be placed in quarantine for ten days after he accidentally bit his nephew, who sustained a minor injury.
When Rhea and her husband went to collect him at the Davidson County Animal Shelter, they were horrified to learn that Blaze had been put asleep.
Owner Rhea told WXII: 'I was very angry, upset, emotional.
'They first go back to his kennel and take a picture and come back out and show me the dog, and it’s not my dog.
Rhea Varker, (pictured), and her family were horrified to learn their dog Blazed was accidentally euthanized at a shelter after he was placed in the wrong kennel
'My documentation that I filled out with animal control was there with the dog that they showed a picture of.'
She claimed the shelter director then pulled her aside to give her the devastating news that Blaze was dead.
Rhea added: 'The blame was left on the cleaning crew that comes in and cleans kennels basically stating that they just put the dog in the wrong spot.
'No other explanations were explained. I wasn’t offered the opportunity to identify my dog.'
After the dog bite, Varker could not find Blaze's vaccine paperwork and she had to leave him at the shelter.
She added: 'My 8-year-old is my middle child, he’s very tender-hearted, very much a dog lover, animal lover of all kinds.
'He's the one that it affected the most. He broke down and sobbed. Cried himself to sleep that night, cried himself to sleep last night. Keeps asking me questions about why, how did they do it, why did they do it.'
Blaze, a 16-month-old Australian cattle dog, had been placed in quarantine for ten days because his owners couldn't find his vaccination paperwork and he had bitten a family member, which was not serious
Rhea and husband Joey, (pictured), said they were told cleaning staff had put the dog in the wrong kennel and there was a mix-up with
