A Lakeland family is devastated after they said they were forced to euthanize their sick puppy before Christmas.
They adopted the puppy from the Polk County Animal Control Shelter, which is run by the Polk County Sheriff’s Office.
Within a week, 10-week-old Ozzy quickly became a part of Mike Cole’s family.
“He was a really friendly dog,” said Cole. “He’d lean against you and put his head on your leg. He tried; he really did try. It was his personality coming through.”
Cole and his wife adopted Ozzy from the Polk County Animal Control Shelter in Winter Haven during their free adoption event on Saturday, December 13. After he was neutered at the shelter, they quickly noticed he wasn’t behaving normally.
“Went to get him, and he was kind of a little lethargic for a 10-week-old puppy,” he said. “Wasn’t really playing or being like a puppy.”
Cole said he took Ozzy to their family vet, who told him the puppy had a lung infection. He was given a shot of antibiotics, but he just got worse after that.
“She said his right lung filled up, and it was supposed to be black, and it was totally white. What was the buildup in his lungs,” he said.
Putting him in a pet hospital would’ve cost between $15,000 to $20,000 with no guarantee he’d get better, so they had to make the difficult decision to put him down.
“How many people have kids that they adopted dogs for their kids for the Christmas holidays, and they get a sick dog,” said Cole. “Now, you have a five, six-year-old kid who doesn’t understand about dogs dying and going to puppy heaven and they gotta put their dogs down.”
A spokesperson for the Polk County Sheriff’s Office told media in part: “…the health of our intake animals is assessed and monitored several times throughout the intake, examination, and adoption process… Any animal exhibiting symptoms of an illness or injury are immediately routed to the veterinary team for further assessment, treatment, and quarantine…PCAC does not knowingly permit the public to adopt sick animals.”
Lastly, the spokesperson added, “In this case, the husband of the adopter told us today that they noted significant wheezing four days after the adoption. Although we were not notified of the illness at that time, Animal Control would have accepted the dog back.”
Cole said the loss has hit his family hard.
“I get that there are a lot of dogs, and they have to cram them in, but separate the sick ones,” he said.
The sheriff’s office spokesperson added there’s no viral infection outbreak at the shelter.
Polk County animal control has a bad reputation just imagine how inmates are treated. Polk County Sheriffs are dirty lieing and conspiring scumbags with no body cameras and no accountability whatsoever (Grady Judd).
See for yourself. Go visit the Polk County Animal Prison.
A friend & I went to Polk county shelter looking to adopt a kitten. My friend noticed a kitten acted lethargic & looked sickly. She showed the kitten to an attendant & they agreed & removed the kitty to be seen by their vet. We waited for an hour for a response but never received one. Also saw several dogs & cats that looked sickly. Who is the “spokesperson” that speaks on behalf of shelter who never addresses our concerns over mismanagement of shelter by sheriff Grady Judd??