A Texas dad is calling for all the employees at a local animal shelter to be fired from their jobs after the shelter allegedly euthanized his family dog less than 24 hours after finding him wandering the streets of his community.
John Gilcrease, who lives in Krum, Texas, with his wife and four kids, said he went to work on Tuesday morning last week. Before he left, his dog, Gunner, was sitting by his truck, curled up on the gravel driveway. He got excited when Smith approached, popping his head up and posing perfectly.
Gilcrease took a picture, then got in his car and drove to work. When he got home, Gunner was nowhere to be found, but that didn't worry Smith, as Gunner had free range of the eight-acre property and loved to roam around the barn and sip water from the pond — he could have been anywhere on the property.
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Gilcrease figured Gunner would show up when it was time for dinner — he almost always came when called, no matter where he was on the property. That day, however, he didn't. Gilcrease began to panic.
"That night, on Tuesday night, I was going to feed the dogs, and I started calling for him. I noticed he didn't come, which was kind of weird," Gilcrease said in a viral TikTok he posted to his page, @crazyrandomdad. "So, I called my wife and said, 'Hey, do me a favor and jump on the NextDoor app and see if anybody posted about Gunner because he's not here, and it's getting dark.'"
"She looked, and she said, 'No, nobody's posted. I said, 'OK, this isn't good, so I'm gonna go check in the barn real quick,' so I went out in the barn, and he kind of hangs out there, chasing bunny rabbits. And he wasn't even out in the barn," Gilcrease continued. That's when the panic really set in.
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"Now, I'm getting worried because I'm fighting the dark, so I jump in my car, and I'm driving down to the subdivision down over here and over on Big Sky Trail, and this is off Highway 380. I'm thinking the worst — maybe he got hit by a car. But then I'm thinking, he has arthritis in his hips. He can't walk that far. And so, he's not going to make it that far. Maybe he's at one of my neighbors' homes," Gilcrease recounted.
"He just kind of stays around the property. I never have to worry about him going too far," he added. "So, I drive around for hours on end. Now, it's 12, 12:30, 1 o'clock in the morning, and I'm devastated I can't find him — like, I'm scared."
Gilcrease, exhausted, eventually returned home, but he said he was up all night, then had to wake up the next morning for a conference call. He asked his wife to do what she could to find the man, and eventually, she told him a woman had reached out from the Linda McNatt Animal Care & Adoption Center in Denton, Texas — which is about 6 miles east of Krum and 40 miles north of Fort Worth.
He called the shelter and let them know he intended to pick Gunner up — the shelter had even put a picture of the dog up on its website. They told him that the shelter was closed to the public that day but that he could come and pick up the dog at 10 a.m. on Thursday.
So, still worried but relieved, Gilcrease ventured out to the shelter. "I thought, 'OK, he's safe, they know we're coming, he's there, and everything should be good. So, I'll pick him up tomorrow.' I show up on Thursday, which is still within the 72-hour hold for a stray," Smith said.
Immediately, he said he could tell something was off. "They said they picked him up on Highway 380 and 35, which is some 12.8 miles from my place. There is absolutely no way he can make it that far because of his legs, so, I knew there was a fault in the story — I just couldn't figure out where it was."
"I end up at the shelter today, and they take me to the back, and we're looking for Gunner, and we go from cage to cage to cage, and no Gunner. I show them the picture of Gunner, and I say, 'Hey, he's here. You guys posted on your website that he's here. We called yesterday, and you said you had him, and you told me to come pick him up today. Where's my ******* dog?'" Gilcrease said.
Then, an employee led him to another room, where he said there was a manager and a regional director present. They reportedly told him, "We had your dog." Gilcrease said, "I heard the verbiage — they said 'had.' I say, 'Wait, wait, wait. You say you HAD my dog? Where the **** is my dog? Where's my dog?'"
"She hesitated, and I said, 'Did you ******* kill my dog?'" Gilcrease said. "And she looked at me and said, 'We put him down.' I almost lost my ****, but I knew I had to stay calm, cool and collected because I'm taking this as far as I can take it."
Gilcrease said he wants their licenses pulled, and people fired and reiterated that, under a local Texas ordinance, he had 72 hours to come pick up his dog before any action — including euthanasia — was taken. "They knew I was coming, and they euthanized my dog within 24 hours," Gilcrease said, angry tears in his eyes. But the worst was yet to come from that heartbreaking visit to the animal shelter.
"She then takes me to the back and says, 'You're more than happy to take your dog today,'" Gilcrease said, putting a picture behind him in the TikTok showing Gunner dead in a red plastic garbage bag on a pallet.
Gilcrease then showed the picture the shelter had put up on its website of Gunner not 48 hours before that he said showed the dog looking "healthy" as Smith said, "There's nothing wrong with him. He's just old. He's got arthritis in his back hips. I give him medication for it." The dog still had its tracking collar on.
"I said, 'He has a chip. He has a tracking collar. My email. My name. Look me up on Facebook. None of that happened, and they euthanized my family dog, and they killed my dog today," he said. "Actually, they killed him the other day. I had no idea. I thought yesterday that he was still alive when they had actually already killed him.
"There's something that I'd like to share. As you can tell, I'm exhausted. I'm tired. I'm heartbroken," Gilcrease began the nearly 10-minute-long TikTok that's now garnered nearly 636,000 likes and over 4.5 million views.
"This over here, that's Gunner, our family dog. He's 12 years old," he said, remembering his beloved pet as he showed viewers pictures of the animal. "This is our family dog of almost 13 years — his birthday is September 28."
"It breaks my heart, but I want you guys to know what happened to him," he said. He cried as he remembered how Gunner would run around the property and come when called for dinner. He said his kids loved Gunner.
Now, Gilcrease is suing the animal shelter. He set up a GoFundMe page designed to raise money for the legal costs. He wrote, "We are rallying anyone who is willing to stand behind us in legal fees it will cost to ensure another family never has to endure what we have!
"We are fighting for our pets' rights and all money will be used to help pay for legal fees that will occur throughout the process of making a change," he continued. "We are in debt to everyone for all the love and support that has been shown from coast to coast. We will be posting our achievements and actions during this time on Facebook and TikTok."
The GoFundMe had raised just over $4,100 of its $5,000 goal as of late Monday morning, just two days after it was established.
Gilcrease concluded the TikTok video by saying, "Animal facilities and shelters should be a safe place for dogs — for lost and scared dogs to go to so owners can find them within a 72-hour timeframe. And that's the ordinance. That's the city ordinance. I have 72 hours, and within the first 24 hours, they ******* killed my dog — no explanation. They just said, 'He was old, and he wasn't doing well, and he was hurting, and we took it upon ourselves to stop the hurt.' I want their jobs gone."