DALLAS (KRLD) - The city of Dallas is locked in another fight with an animal adoption group over whether a dog should be euthanized.
The dog at the center of the legal battle is a pit-bull terrier mix named Rusty. In December of 2017, the adoption group Dallas Pets Alive took Rusty to an adoption. The group says the dog was on a leash when he bit a 2-year old. According to the group, the child's mother was warned to keep the boy away from the pets, but that the boy taunted the dog anyway.
Since the incident, the City of Dallas has been trying to have Rusty euthanized. Pets Alive has been trying to get the dog sent to another out-of-state group. It perplexes Arlington attorney Don Feare.
"Are they trying to accomplish, 'we're the government and you can't challenge us,' or are they trying to accomplish let's do what's necessary to protect cur citizens"? asked Feare. "Getting the dog into a private facility accomplishes the same thing whether it's dead or not. It relieves the city, the community of any danger."
The case has already been before a municipal court, a County Court, the 5th District Court of Appeals and is currently under consideration by the Supreme Court of Texas. The High Court today consolidated two appeals, one over the ability to issue an injunction to block the euthanization and the other whether the trial court lacks subject-matter jurisdiction to consider an appeal of a determination under section 822.003 of the health and safety code.
Meantime, Feare says Rusty is living a bleak life.
"Since this case began about a year and a half ago Rusty has been locked in a cement cell at Dallas Animal Services."
The City has declined to comment on the case.
The case of Rusty-the-dog has similarities to another euthanization case from late 2017. The city attempted to euthanize a dog named Lamb of God, which belonged to a homeless man. Courts saved the dog, which is now living with a family in Central Texas.