A heartbroken dog owner is asking for justice for his dog, Cuda, after he suffered from heat stroke while in the care of animal control and was forced to euthanize him.
In a lengthy Facebook post, Jeff Barnes explains that his Pit Bull, Cuda, got out of his home and into the yard of a neighbor and attacked the neighbor’s cat. The neighbor’s cat was killed and Visalia Animal Control was called to collect Cuda, placing him in what is meant to be a cooled containment unit in the animal control vehicle at 10:15 AM. Jeff asked to see his dog, and voiced his concerns about Cuda seeming to be hot – but the animal control officer assured him that the unit was cooled and Cuda would be fine.
Cuda stayed in the vehicle for over a half hour while the animal control officer spoke with Jeff and his neighbor, who claims that Jeff’s two other dogs were involved in killing her cat as well. Jeff surrendered all three dogs and was told that there would be a hearing to determine whether his pets were vicious.
Two hours after the animal control officer left with his dogs, he got a call telling him that Cuda was taken to the vet, suffering from heat stroke. “He said I needed to come down to figure out how I was going to pay for this!” Jeff says in his post. “No compassion or any customer service from this officer was ever given. It was if this was all my fault.”
The scene Jeff describes when he arrived at the vet was horrific. Cuda’s temperature reached 109 while in the custody of animal control. His brain was swollen and he was suffering from internal bleeding, with blood coming from his mouth and behind. There was no other choice but to euthanize him.
Cuda turned one year old that day. Jeff remembers him as a very sweet, obedient dog who liked to cuddle.
Although mourning the cat she raised from a kitten, Jeff’s neighbor has put aside her bad feelings and expressed sympathy for what happened to Cuda, and regrets that he suffered as he did. “I am so sorry for what happened to Cuda no animal deserves what happened to him,” she says in a Facebook post.
Jeff is understandably hurt, and upset. In a teary interview with WBTV, Jeff asks for answers, and justice for his dog.
He hasn’t asked for his other dogs to be released without hearing in light of what has happened to Cuda, or even that the animal control officer be fired. He is asking for answers, wants to know how long his dog was in the animal control vehicle, whether the cooling unit was working properly, and whether this could have been avoided. For Jeff Barnes, Justice For Cuda means that the city will make whatever changes necessary to make sure that this doesn’t happen to another dog.
via Whisker Therapy