DANVILLE, Va. – Calls for reform at the Danville Area Humane Society are continuing after the euthanasia of a dog named Eve sparked backlash from activists, lawmakers and community members.
Eve had previously been adopted from the Lynchburg Humane Society before later being returned to the Danville shelter and euthanized.
Kim Brown, who adopted Eve from the Lynchburg shelter, said she never expected the dog would be euthanized after being returned to Danville.
“It was between my mama being homeless and, on the streets, and not having anywhere to go,” Brown said. “My mom has nothing against Eve. She’s just scared of dogs.”
Brown said if she didn’t know Eve would be put down and wishes she could go back and change the past.
“If I had known about Danville, we would have drove down here and brought Eve back,” she said.
Senator Bill Stanley (R) said his office has launched an investigation into the shelter and is reviewing hundreds of pages of records.
“We’re boiling it down into what we’re going to put in a legal report to submit to the agencies and the stakeholders around here to let them know exactly what’s going on,” Stanley said.
Stanley said he believes the shelter needs policy changes. He criticized the shelter’s record-keeping system, saying many documents are handwritten instead of computerized.
“What you’re seeing here in some of these documents is everything there is handwritten,” Stanley said. “Nothing is computer-based. It’s all done by hand. That is an antiquated system that needs to change.”
Stanley has also endorsed a petition launched by advocacy group Danville Deserves Better, calling on the Danville City Council to review the shelter’s practices in a public town hall and implement reforms.
Katie Fine, campaign strategist for the group, said the petition had gathered about 700 signatures as of this week. many of those coming from out-of-state and even out-of-country.
“It really is just an accumulation of people who agree that Eve’s case raises serious questions about shelter procedures, especially microchip verification practices,” Fine said.
Shelter Director Paulette Dean said the euthanasia was a mistake and that she’s working with employees to prevent this from happening in the future. Dean said the shelter is reinforcing microchip verification procedures and updating intake forms to document where surrendered pets were originally adopted.
“It was a mistake,” Dean said. “Employees have already been talked to. We absolutely have reinforced the issue of this is what happens.”
Dean also said the shelter has increased security measures following threats directed at the organization in the wake of the controversy.