Woman whose dog was accidentally euthanized learns second dog was also put down

ORLANDO, Fla. — A woman who learned one of two dogs she dropped off at Orange County Animal Services was accidentally euthanized said she went to pick up the second dog only to find out it, too, was put down.

On Wednesday, Channel 9 learned a pit bull named Hershey was ready to be adopted but was put down due to a procedural error at OCAS. The original owner, Shawntae Rosetta, said she found out Hershey was euthanized after watching the news.

"My mom called and she said, 'Hershey was on the news.' I was like, 'Oh did someone adopt him?' and she was like, dead (silent) for a moment," Rosetta said.

Rosetta snapped pictures of Hershey and his sister Roxy when she dropped them off at Animal Services.

"We were moving and where we were moving to, we couldn't take the dogs with us. I tried on several attempts to literally give him away," Rosetta said.

Channel 9's Bianca Castro was at OCAS on Thursday as Rosetta attempted to pick up Roxy, but she, too, had already been euthanized.

"Was it because they were pit bulls, because they considered pit bulls to be aggressors or aggressive dogs or whatever?" Rosetta asked.

"I'm not speaking to the media right now. I'm sorry. It's not my position," the worker told her.

"It's just a question that I have," said Rosetta.

"If I could do it all over again, I wouldn't have brought them here," she said.

The controversial incident turned sour when a veterinarian allegedly sent an insulting letter to a group who was seeking answers in Hershey's death.

A local rescue group wrote veterinarian Dr. Robert Ridgway an email asking for answers to what went wrong. In return, however, Ridgeway gave no answers and wrote a degrading email back.

"It was not until I got your email that I realized why I came back to OCAS. Besides being stupid, I wanted to get dumb emails from people like you that make my day," Ridgway said in his email. "Emails like yours are so stimulating it makes hard working people want to butter up to you to make you happy -- believe me they will."

The email didn't end there, though.

"I suggest that you attempt to go to veterinary college and when you graduate, if you can, you come take my job," Ridgway wrote.

Click here to read full email from Dr. Ridgway

Animal services has apologized for the ordeal, but at least one member of the department's advisory board believes the issue represents a much bigger problem inside OCAS.

"This has been going on for way too long," said board member Debbie Turner.

WFTV