It's clear there was a communication mishap. The question is, how did the mishap happen?
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The agency tells ABC7 News, it received a last minute request from a rescue group to save the 4-year-old pit bull mix named Barbie, who wasn't available for public adoption because she may have had a tumor.
Petaluma Pet Pals posts on its Facebook page: "Barbie was a dog our rescue was scheduled to pull. She was supposed to be spayed and have a biopsy on a mammary mass."
A board member told me by phone they had a foster family lined up and would pay for any medical treatments.
But on June 18, three days before pick up, Barbie was put down.
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"We don't want to be euthanizing animals that have a way home," said Steve Burdo with Contra Costa Animal Services. "And at the same time, if we do run into a situation like that, we all love animals, and it hurts us just as much as it hurts everybody else."
The agency says an investigation into a second dog that was euthanized around the same time shows no irregularities.
The incidents come as the shelter celebrates a jump in the rate of animals saved, from 45 percent 5 years ago, to 80 percent today.
Contra Costa Animal Services is now reviewing its procedures, and the director promises to make the findings of its investigation public.