Everyone that watched the news coverage of the ACC must have noticed this beautiful dog featured both times. I was hoping that his story would have been told but it wasn’t. Now it will be….
Meet PALM. He was a magnificent animal….one of the most handsome I had ever seen. He came to the shelter as a stray this past October. He was only a year old and in perfect health. Here is the bio written about him by a caring volunteer:
A volunteer wrote: “Palm is a sad-eyed 1 year-old pittie puppy who is simply terrified to be in the shelter. The barking dogs and clanging cages really rattle him, and he cowers in the back of his cage with a look of worry and alarm. I sat down by his door and talked to him for a little while, occasionally patting my knee and beckoning him out. Slowly but surely, he swam over to me on his belly with his adorable frowny face, and then hopped out onto the ground. Palm has bright tan over his body, but a completely white head and neck, making him look like aristocratic nobility, or maybe a tan pittie with a white mask (it was Halloween, after all). To top it off, his eyes are the same bright shade of tan, so his appearance is really quite stunning. This poor little boy, found as a stray, shakes like a leaf until he gets about one block from the shelter. At that point, for the first time, his tail came out and started wagging when I pet him, and he regained his posture, walking along the sidewalk with a degree of grace and confidence. I think if Palm were given the chance in a quiet, loving home, he would blossom beyond belief. Although clearly scared, his behavior score was a lovely mix of 1’s and 2’s. The shelter is a rough place for a scared baby like Palm, but he really brightens and shows off if he can get a little distance from it. He deserves a quiet forever home to show off his mask!”
Like many dogs, he did very well on his evaluation, but was fearful and tense. The ACC ignored his fabulous scores (all 1’s and 2’s) and labeled him MODERATE. By doing so, he was able to be placed on the euth list for TEMPER. He had no temperament issues and everyone cried foul.
For whatever reasons, he was spared the next day. Things were looking up for our dear boy. He even met a future forever family and they wanted to adopt him!! I thought he was going to end up in my saved folder, with pictures of him happy and loved. That was not to be….
On November 12th, a “Vet Tech” that was not licensed, and should not have been performing euthanasia, made a horrific mistake. Palm’s A # was one number off from Zeigler’s, a dog that was on the euth list that day. Without double checking the number (or the basic description of the dog… my god, Palm was so unique), this vet tech destroyed Palm, a poor scared angel. Palm, a dog with a new lease on life…. a new family waiting for him… years ahead of him….. was dead.
Palm will never be forgotten and is a perfect example of how the NYC ACC FAILED ANOTHER DOG. This should not have happened. The vet tech was allowed to remain on at the shelter, and kill 2 more dogs (Sugar and Denver) “by accident”, until he was fired for unrelated reasons. Here are their pictures too… they died for no reason other than an incompetent worker.
Sugar (right) was on the euth list for “temper” but had great scores. She was removed from the euth list but the “vet tech” did not review the notes in the computer, which stated that she was off the list, before he killed her.
Denver (left) was also pulled off the euth list but he was 1 number off from a dog that was not pulled off the list. The other dog lived and Denver died. He should have lived and his death still haunts me.
RIP <3 PALM <3 … YOU WERE SOOOOO LOVED AND SORELY MISSED : (