Promontory resident Wyndy Carnell said she knew something was wrong when she returned home June 9 and her housecat, Romeo, was missing.
A neighbor took the roughly 14-year-old cat to Summit County Animal Control when it strayed from its home on West View Trail. The cat was euthanized within three hours of its delivery that afternoon to the animal shelter in Wanship.
“Park City is such an animal town,” Carnell said in a telephone interview.
But the woman who contacted Animal Control said Romeo looked “very, very sick,” Summit County Sheriff’s Office Capt. Dean Carr said.
“She was so concerned about the cat that she picked it up and she took it to Animal Control,” Carr said.
Because the cat had no collar or microchip officers were unable to identify its owner, Carr said.
“Clearly, if the animal had had some kind of identification on it, no doubt, we would have done what was necessary to contact the owner,” Carr said. “Unfortunately, [Carnell] called the shelter three hours after to report that her cat was missing.”
An Animal Control worker and Summit County Friends of Animals representative examined the cat before it was put down, he added.
“It was just a really unfortunate, sad circumstance that really nobody had any control over We can’t isolate cats that are sick,” Carr said. “We don’t routinely euthanize animals. If the cat had been brought in healthy it would still be there.”
Since his birth, Romeo suffered from a tear duct problem that caused his eyes to ooze profusely, Carnell explained.
“They thought he had upper respiratory infection,” Carnell said about shelter officials. “He had eye juice in his eyes all the time.”
Carnell claims the cat was taken from a building lot next to her home.
“He was right next door,” she said.
Romeo was actually caught several blocks from his home, Carr countered in a telephone interview.
“My guess it’d be four to five blocks away,” Carr said.
The cat’s existing condition was not known to shelter officials, he said, adding that the shelter only euthanizes ill or aggressive pets.
Meanwhile, Summit County Animal Control workers need access to a trained veterinarian, Carnell said.
“They could save a few more animals,” she said.
An isolation area is also necessary at the shelter for quarantining sick pets, Carnell stressed.
But money is not available to pay a vet to see cases at the shelter, Carr said.
“I’m very comfortable with what happened, as far as, did we conduct ourselves appropriately,” he said. “By all appearances this was a feral cat. If it’s a sick animal and it’s got a communicable disease it could run through the shelter even if it was in a quarantine area.”
Only a few Animal Control workers are trained to inject the euthanizing serum, Carr said.
“They have to be able to withstand the emotions of putting an animal to sleep,” he said.