Daily News, Monday, April 13, 1998
[cover page]
STORY ON PAGE 5
by Lisa Rein
Daily News Staff Writer
A clerical error at the city's embattled animal shelter was a death sentence for a Bronx woman's dog.
Teshan Baker's beloved 14-month-old German shepherd Rottweiler mix, Cujo, was destroyed even though the shelter had agreed to lower hefty fines she would have had to pay to have him returned.
"This was wrong," said a heartbroken Baker, 23, whose 4-year-old son Lamarr, was also devastated by Cujo's death.
Cujo died because an index card saying the dog was to be spared was misfiled and never seen by a worker who collected the animals scheduled to be put to sleep.
The 14-month-old was euthanized last Tuesday--just hours before Baker had hoped to pick him up.
The Center for Animal Care and Control--which has come under fire for its handling of strays and has been criticized for fining owners of unspayed pets--admits the mistake.
"It is a very unfortunate clerical error for which we are all extremely sorry," said Marilyn Haggerty-Blohm, the center's acting director. She said she has apologized to Baker and disciplined four workers.
Cujo's horror story began March 23 when he broke away from his leash as Baker's cousin walked him in a Bronx park A worried Baker immediately plastered pictures of Cujo up and down the Grand Concourse.
But the dog had been found by a passerby. The man kept Cujo for a couple of weeks, then brought him to the animal shelter on E. 110th St.
Last Monday, after placing the dog in the shelter, the good Samaritan saw the flyer and called Baker.
She went to the center and identified her dog--and her troubles began.
She was told it would cost her $250 to get Cujo back because he wasn't neutered. In addition, it would cost $40 more to get Cujo a license, shots and a microchip under his skin to identify him if he ran away again.
Baker had run up against the city's controversial pay-or-spay policy, which requires owners recovering lost pets to pay whopping fees if the animals aren't spayed or neutered. Critics say the policy, designed to control the overpopulation of dogs and cats, discriminates against those who can't afford the fees.
The unemployed Baker burst into tears. A supervisor immediately offered to reduce the fee to $80 if Baker agreed to neuter the dog. She said she couldn't afford that amount, and was told to call another supervisor the next day to get it lowered. Under shelter policy, dogs can be put to sleep 48 hours after being brought into the shelter.
But behind the scenes, an error had been made which sealed Cujo's fate even as his loving owner raced to put together the money to free him.
Cujo's name was put on an index card saying there was a dispute about the fee. But the card was never seen by the worker who collected the dogs scheduled to be euthanized Tuesday morning. Somehow, Cujo was taken with the other dogs, even though he had only been at the shelter a day.
The index cards are used to track the tens of thousands of animals that land in the city's five shelters every year, an antiquated system, which is supposed to be replaced by computers.
On Tuesday morning, a shelter worker returned a call from Baker and stunned the woman by telling her Cujo was dead. "I was going to come up with the money," said Baker, a single mother who quit her clerical job last fall.
"A lot of people were standing at the front desk when I was standing there crying hysterically," she said, choking back tears. "One of them couldn't run back and put my dog in the right file?''
Haggerty-Blohm told Baker she could adopt another dog for free as compensation. But Baker said Cujo can't be replaced.
Animal Care and Control said in 1996 that all city shelters would get new computers. Since then, over $300,000 has been spent on the system, but it still isn't up and running.
Haggerty-Blohm blamed the delay on hard ware and wiring problems.
"This is pure bureaucratic bungling," said Gary Kaskel, director of the Shelter Reform Action Committee, an animal advocacy group and critic of Animal Care and Control.