Mercy’s Final Days

by Deloris Munden of East Texas Towns

The Chief made one call and had the answer in a few seconds. Mercy was killed and carted off in dumpster where she was taken to a landfill.

MARSHALL — This is a tale of how a dog came within hours of starting a new life with food, medical attention and love only to be killed, thrown into a dumpster and tossed in a landfill. And why did this happen? Because someone at the Marshall City Animal Shelter felt it was more important to start the day killing dogs than checking telephone messages.

Elaine and Chris Slaughter first heard about the white, sickly boxer (whom they named Mercy) when a relative went to the animal shelter on July 3 and saw the dog. Knowing the Slaughters love white boxers, she called them. Unfortunately it was now after 5 pm but Chris and Elaine went to the shelter (actually they made two visits) and saw that the dog needed medical care and food. They left numerous messages on the phone saying they knew the dog needed care, etc., but they wanted the dog in any case and would be willing to make any investment necessary to make its final days (if it came to that) happy.

July 4 was a holiday and Elaine made several visits to visit Mercy. On July 5 Elaine started calling at 8:06 AM. She made numerous calls and someone answered her 11 AM call. She inquired about the boxer and was told a rescue league had picked her up but he could not tell her what rescue league. At 1:30 Elaine went to the shelter and the cage that the boxer had occupied contained a different dog. Once again she asked for the rescue group’s phone number. A lady was at the shelter told Elaine to write down her name, phone number, and address and she would try to have the rescue group that had taken the boxer call her.

At this point the Slaughters went into overdrive in a last ditch effort to try to save Mercy. Mercy must be alive because the animal shelter lady had asked Elaine for her information and of course, she had the information from the numerous phone calls Elaine had been making since Tuesday evening.

The answer to this was simple — find out what rescue league picked up Mercy.

Elaine contacted Kay Hill at the Pet Place in Marshall. Ms. Hill could not obtain any additional information.

Truly believing that the boxer had been picked up by a rescue league the Slaughters went on the Internet and contacted every rescue league possible looking for a white sickly boxer who had been picked up in Marshall on July 5. Six people from rescue groups called her to tell her they had been unable to locate Mercy.

On Friday afternoon, July 6, Elaine called upon the Marshall City Police Chief. She explained the situation stating they had been calling and visiting the animal shelter since July 3. If they could obtain the telephone number of the rescue league who picked up Mercy they would drive to wherever, pick up the dog and take her to a veterinarian so that Mercy would have a comfortable weekend.

The Chief made one call and had the answer in a few seconds. Mercy was killed and carted off in dumpster where she was taken to a landfill.

Thinking the dumpster may not have visited the animal shelter yet the Slaughters called the animal shelter and asked if they could come and retrieve her remains so that she could be buried in a pretty place on their property and receive love and care even though she was dead. They were told the dumpster had come and gone. When asked why they were lied to and led to believe she was with a rescue group the animal shelter man said he was going to be the bad guy in any case.

Case closed.

Granted the shelter has to put down animals but this one didn’t have to be killed. Mercy could have had a few good meals, a comfortable bed and lots of love in her final days IF only someone had taken the time to listen to their voice mail before they started killing the animals.

A framed photo of Mercy now resides on the Slaughter’s mantle. Even though she is gone she was loved.