Photo courtesy of Oswego Patch
Christine Johnson was on administrative leave from Kendall County Animal Control in Yorkville, Illinois since Friday for euthanizing the wrong dog and then lying about it to the board. The resignation arrived before what was supposed to be a closed meeting began. Instead the meeting was opened up to the public were both County Board Chairman John Purcell and Board member Anne Vickery, Animal Control Committee chairman, apologized and said the county takes full responsibility for the situation that saw a dog euthanized that maybe should not have been, and a dog with a biting record put up for adoptions into the community. “Not one of us here is proud of what happened,” Purcell said “We will make improvements, I promise you.”
The spotlight has been on Kendall’s Animal Control facility for about two weeks since a local mother showed the board members photos of the injuries sustained by her son when he was bitten by a dog at Kendall County Animal Control on July 3 while with his father. The child and his father were playing with a dog named Moose when it bit the child on the face. The child required surgery and was in critical condition due to complications.
Christine Johnson told the board at the public meeting that the Bullmastiff known as Moose had been euthanized and that the dog had been in animal controls possession because it had bit a mailman at the end of May. Shelter staff cannot locate in-take paperwork for Moose and it has come out that it was the mailman’s wife who pestered animal control to bring Moose in for the 10 day quarantine period because at the time he bit her husband his rabies vaccination had expired. Moose was not euthanized but was instead adopted to a local family where he bit a neighbor. It seems that Moose was not evaluated either on intake to try and determine the cause of his behavior or again after he bit the child visiting the facility.
