Officials in Sugar Land, Texas, fired employees of an animal shelter last week after they discovered they were improperly euthanizing dozens of animals.

Source: KPRC 2 Click2Houston/YouTube

The City of Sugar Land announced the firing in a statement after they found that at least 38 dogs and cats were improperly euthanized by the shelter workers. Five employees were fired, and the manager of the shelter resigned before he could be fired. The officials said that the employees purposely ignored verbal instructions and deliberately disregarded known protocol.

The employees claimed that the euthanized animals were behaving aggressively or “had a medical diagnosis” but investigations revealed that the animals were euthanized without evaluations or supervision from a veterinarian. Both of these are mandatory for conducting legal euthanasia. According to the city, a certified behaviorist would have also been required to determine if the ‘aggressive’ animals should be euthanized.

The Sugar Land Animal Shelter Dogs Facebook page is run by volunteers who were not involved in the murders and said that they are also sickened by the news. They said that the incidents happened behind closed doors.

“Our mission and goal of this page is to promote our amazing dogs for adoption and bring smiles to faces by showing their cute and silly personalities,” the post on the page read.

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