Diana Dolan, from New Mexico, told INSIDE EDITION a shelter told them the dog was a Boxer named Gardner - but they later realized that was not the case.
A mother who adopted a dog who bit her 12-year-old daughter says the shelter deceived them.
Diana Dolan, from Albuquerque, New Mexico, told INSIDE EDITION a local shelter told them the dog was a Boxer named Gardner.
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But just a week after Gardner moved in, he was sitting on the couch with Diana when "he just suddenly lifted his head and snarled at me," she said.
A few days later, as a friend looked after her daughter May, Dolan received a text saying: "Gardner just bit May and me."
May explained: “He just turned around and bit me like right there. I was scared of him after.”
Records showed that Gardner was actually a mixed-breed pit bull named Danger.
“I was angry because it showed a certain intent to be deceitful,” Dolan said.
An INSIDE EDITION investigation found that the names and breeds of some dogs at the Animal Welfare Department in Albuquerque, New Mexico have been changed, allegedly to make the animals more adoption-friendly.
Jim Ludwick, who is second in command at the shelter, became a whistleblower and filed complaints against his own boss, Director Barbara Bruin. He claimed Animal Welfare allowed dangerous dogs to be adopted to the public.
“We let dogs out that should never have been released... that went on to attack people and animals,” Ludwick said.
After he complained, his office was ultimately moved out of the shelter and the city launched an investigation.
He believes the shelter has adopted out more than 100 dangerous dogs for adoption in the last year, but Director Barbara Bruin told INSIDE EDITION that was not the case.
“We sometimes change names to make them more adoptable, sometimes after Disney characters,” she said. “We are not adopting out dangerous dogs.”
But records at the shelter reveal dogs who should never have been adopted, according to the inspector eeneral.
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Bruin also told INSIDE EDITION that “any dog that is people aggressive is automatically put down.”
But after one dog named Pappy killed a neighbor’s poodle and attacked its elderly owner, Animal Welfare ultimately handed over the dog to a private animal rescue group, which isn’t required to report where he is now.
Another animal, Mugsy Malone, went on to attack a three-year-old girl.
“It was horrible,” Ludwick said. “Her face was ripped up. The father had to hit the dog repeatedly with a rock trying to get the dog off of his child's face.”
After the attack, the dog was never put down, he said.
“It was given to a rescue group,” he said. “That dog should have been euthanized.”
Officials told INSIDE EDITION that they’re reaching out to families who adopted dogs from the shelter.
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