Sanctuary owner under fire over dog adoptions speaks out

TEXAS CITY, TX Now that animal sanctuary owner is talking to us in person about the dogs and the decision to adopt them out.

There is no doubt the Whiskerville Animal Sanctuary has helped hundreds of cats and dogs, but it is what happened with two lost dogs that has upset so many people and now the sanctuary owner wants to explain her actions.

On Wednesday we told you about Nikko and Zeus, two lost German Shepherds.

Daisy Garza said the dogs left her backyard on July 2 and two weeks later they turned up on a missing dog web site. Garza learned the dogs were under the care of the Whiskerville Animal Sanctuary.

Garza told us Whiskerville would not give back her dogs and in fact Zeus was adopted by another family and Nikko will soon follow suit.

The decision not to return the dogs to Garza has been met with outrage.

"It's been pretty awful. We have received absolutely horrible emails," said Wydell Dixon, owner of Whiskerville Animal Sanctuary.

Dixon says she made the decision to let Zeus go to another family before Garza located the pets online, however Dixon claims Garza only applied to adopt one dog back and that made a big difference for Dixon.

"She put in her application for one of the dogs. She sold the other dog down the river. She did not want the other dog," said Dixon.

Garza told us she did want both dogs back, but the terms of the Whiskerville adoption, which require the animals be kept inside the home, made it impossible to ask for both dogs back.

Dixon is not moved by that.

"If she would have done right by both of those dogs, I still would have talked to the new owner and I still tried to do what the public thinks I should do," said Dixon.

She says Zeus is with another family and the new owner will not give up the dog.

"They are not willing to do that and at this point both dogs are now adopted," said Dixon.

We asked Dixon if she felt she did anything wrong, and she told us no.

Dixon also said it is clear the dogs belonged to Garza, but said the adoption process was already underway, and since Zeus was in a new home and the new owners would not give up the dog, Dixon said there was nothing she could do to reunite the owner with Nikko and Zeus.