Re-evaluation of protocols and computer system at TLAC after Buddy's death

Jun 07, 2010

After an investigation into the premature euthanasia of Buddy, TLAC Interim Director Bruce Mills has made a commitment to ensure that nothing like this ever happens again at the shelter.  We are grateful to him for his commitment to re-evaluating protocols and working on their data management system to ensure that important data is easily accessible and look forward to supporting in any way we can.

Mr. Mills response to the incident can be seen below:

I have attempted to learn as much about the circumstances around the death of Buddy and what we did and didn't do in this case...

I will tell you that the bottom line is that we failed to completely review our notes in our database and that Buddy was euthanized prematurely.  As you know Amber did put a note in the system asking to hold Buddy for 24 hours longer.

This is where we dropped the ball, plain and simple and unfortunate.

Going forward what we have focused on today is making sure that we have the checks and balances in place to ensure this can't happen again.

We also want to take a look at our informal practice of notifying our volunteers prior to an animal being euthanized... I understand the reason for this and the importance of doing it but I don't want us to over promise if we can't commit.

I can tell you that we will be taking a comprehensive look out all of our protocols involving euthanasia to make sure that we have the checks and balances in place.

As I told you this morning we are  currently looking at our chameleon data management system to make sure that we have the latest version of software, fully understand what all it can do, and have all of the tools to support it in our environment.

Again, I am sorry that this unfortunate oversight occurred and I can only hope that we can learn from this to ensure that it does not happen again.

Bruce