He Says His Elderly Lab Was Euthanized By An Animal Shelter Even Though His Wife Called To Say They Were Coming To Get Him

GoFundMe - pictured above John kisses Gunner
GoFundMe - pictured above John kisses Gunner

John Gilcrease is a resident of Denton County, Texas, and he and his family had a beloved elderly lab named Gunner. John’s six children absolutely adored Gunner, and he was a very special part of their family.

On September 28th, Gunner would have celebrated his 13th birthday, but he was devastatingly euthanized by an animal shelter after John’s wife called to say they were coming to get him.

This all started to unfold back on Tuesday, September 3rd, when John stepped out of his house and headed off to work.

Gunner was lying beside his truck, sunbathing, and John snapped a photo of him. John had no idea that moment would mark the last time he would see Gunner alive.

After John came back home later on, he had no clue that Gunner had gone missing. John and his family live on eight acres, which is a lot of space, and Gunner’s tracking device on his collar had a dead battery.

Gunner had free range of John’s farm, so Gunner went wherever he pleased. Sometimes, he would be in the barn, sometimes drinking from the pond. Gunner loved being outside.

On Tuesday evening, when John went to feed his dogs and realized Gunner wasn’t around, he went to the yard and started calling for him, but he didn’t respond, which was not like him.

John called his wife and asked her to go on the Nextdoor app to see if anyone had caught sight of Gunner, but his wife confirmed nobody had posted about him.

John checked their barn, Gunner’s favorite place to chase bunnies, and he wasn’t there either. John was growing concerned as dark was setting in, so he hopped in his car to see if perhaps Gunner was wandering around the subdivision they live in.

GoFundMe – pictured above John kisses Gunner

Since Gunner was diagnosed with arthritis in his hips, John knew he couldn’t have gotten far, but he drove around for hours with no sign of Gunner.

He felt devastated, and around 12:30 or 1 a.m., he headed home sick to his stomach and tried to get some sleep.

The following day, a woman reached out to John to say that Gunner was at the Linda McNatt Animal Shelter on Elm Street in Denton.

John was on a conference call, so he asked his wife to call the animal shelter to let them know he could come by to get Gunner when his call was over.

The shelter told John’s wife that they were closed to the public on Wednesday, so they were not allowed to pick Gunner up until Thursday.

“I thought, ok, he’s safe, they know we’re coming, he’s there, and everything should be good,” John said in his video shared to TikTok.

Now, in the state of Texas, there is a law that says there has to be a 72-hour hold put on a dog brought to a shelter whose owner cannot be identified.

The shelter that had Gunner told John someone found Gunner 12.2 miles from John’s home and brought him there.

“There’s absolutely no way he can make it that far with his legs, so I knew there was a fault in the story, but I just couldn’t figure out where it was,” John added.

On Thursday, John says he arrived at the shelter and went to the back with staff members, looking through the cages and trying to find Gunner.

John showed them a photo of Gunner and reminded the staff that they had confirmed they had Gunner in their possession over the phone and even posted a photo of Gunner on their website.

John was brought into another room with two women who run the shelter, and one of them admitted to John they had put Gunner down. John kept his cool.

“I had 72 hours; they knew I was coming, and they euthanized my dog within 24 hours,” John continued.

John was informed he could take Gunner home in the red bag they stuffed his body in after putting him down.

Allegedly, the shelter’s only explanation for their behavior, according to John, is that Gunner was just old and “not doing well.”

John is hoping to get justice for Gunner by seeking to get the people responsible for putting him down fired.

You can watch John’s TikTok video below and also visit his GoFundMe page here.

@officialcrazyrandomdad

#greenscreen #dog #texas #fyp Linda McNatt Denton Animal Shelter killed my dog! I want managers FIRED for destroying my family @Denton Texas #gunnerStory #justiceforgunner

? original sound – OfficialCrazyRandomDad

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