'It's Disgusting': Baltimore County Shelter Nearly Killed Woman's Microchipped Dog

Shayla, adopted last year by an Owings Mills family, was microchipped when she got loose from their backyard, but her owners said that wasn't enough to keep her off doggie death row in the Baltimore County shelter.

Helen Turner told WBAL that she searched around her neighborhood after the dog got out and called Baltimore County Animal Services, among other places, multiple times, and didn't receive a call back. When she posted Shayla's picture on Facebook, someone took a photo inside county shelter in Baldwin confirming the dog was there.

Being microchipped and tattooed—as Shayla was, after being adopted from the Humane Society—is not enough to identify animals, according to Baltimore County Health Department Director Gregory Branch, who told WBAL that animal behavior or chip placement may prevent identification from being found during the two scans the shelter conducts. WBAL showed a picture of Shayla's tattoo, clearly visible against her white fur.

Animal advocates say that obstructing animals from being claimed is not new for the shelter, which has a more than 60 percent kill rate and where volunteers are not allowed to take photographs of the animals to help them get adopted.

A group called Reform Baltimore County Animal Services has staged demonstrations and started a petition asking for an overhaul in the way the shelter is run. The petition calling for the shelter's reform has gained more than 3,500 signatures on Change.org. The Maryland SPCA has reportedly offered its assistance to the shelter, which has not accepted.

"What they're saying is absolutely not correct," Branch told WJZ in an interview following a demonstration animal advocates held in Towson last month. "Our euthanasia rates have gone down."

The group Reform Baltimore County Animal Services painted a different picture of the facility, which it says kills animals before rescue groups can take them and does not maintain sanitary conditions for the animals.

"It's disgusting," Turner told WBAL, after she showed shelter personnel a photo of Shayla, and was told the dog wasn't there. Turner went back just to take a look for herself and found her girl, who had a placard on her cage stating she was four days from being put down, the TV station reported.

Reformists said understaffing and limited adoption hours were part of the shelter's challenges. In April, Baltimore County added a second veterinarian to its staff and expanded its hours. It also approved $5 million for a new facility, which it will build in the same location in Baldwin by 2015.

At the end of a jarring YouTube video about the shelter, Reform Baltimore County Animal Services said a new facility was not enough: "The fix is in the philosophy."

For any owners out there with missing pets, Turner urged them to be persistent and immediate in their actions, telling WBAL: "You can't just wait."