MEMPHIS, TN (ac24.com) - A family pet was killed at the Memphis Animal Shelter, and now the head of that shelter admits mistakes were made. The tragedy has now cost a high-level manager at the shelter his job.
Victoria Henry can't even talk about Nola, her beloved dog, without crying.
"She was my baby," Henry said. "I potty-trained her, bought her little girl clothes, because she was my little poo-poo."
Nola and Henry's other dog, Uno, got out of her backyard and were taken to the Memphis Animal Shelter. Henry said she went to the shelter looking for both. She eventually found Uno, but Nola was nowhere to be found.
"It is tragic that it happened, it shouldn't and what we are doing there now is making sure it doesn't happen again," said James Rogers, Administrator for the shelter.
Rogers says a chain of human errors is to blame for Nola's death. He says the animal control officer posted the wrong input date on the form. That, in turn, led the shelter employee to enter the wrong date into the computer.
Rogers says an employee pointed out the error, but the employee never changed the date.
Nola was killed the next day.
"I just wish someone cared enough to just change the date. That's all they had to do, is change the date," Henry said.
Rogers confirmed Wednesday night that Chelton Beamon, Operations Manager at the shelter, has been terminated.
"There will be other discipline issued to the employees that failed to do their jobs," Rogers said.
"It is still not going to bring Nola back, but maybe it will prevent someone else from making the same mistake," said Henry.
The shelter charged Henry $165 to get Uno out. After all that has happened, Rogers says he's working to refund Henry her money.
