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Skylar was 7 at the time. She wore a Scooby Doo costume. Daisy, a terrier mix the Webster Groves family adopted from a shelter, wore a pink tutu.

“They did everything together,â€� Bulfin says of her daughter and Daisy. “ÁñÁ«ÊÓƵ were constantly with each other.â€�

That companionship ended shortly after Christmas in 2019. On Dec. 26, Daisy nipped at Skylar as they were playing with a new toy. Bulfin and her husband, Edward Nea, took their daughter to the hospital, where she needed stitches on her nose. While there, Bulfin, a teacher in the St. Louis Public Schools, looked up on Google what to do when your dog bites somebody.

“The situation was traumatic, and I didn’t want animal control officers to take our dog. I wanted to make sure we did the right thing. I wanted to protect my daughter and Daisy,� Bulfin says. “One of my biggest fears was that they would euthanize her.�

After doing research and calling her veterinarian, Bulfin determined the best thing was to take Daisy to the shelter operated by St. Louis Animal Care and Control for a 10-day hold. She called animal control and they agreed that was the right thing to do.

The next day, Nea took Daisy there. Workers filled out the paperwork and Nea signed it. He asked if they could come visit during the 10 days, and the workers told him they could. Nea made it clear they wanted Daisy back after 10 days.

That night, Bulfin called a cousin who was a veterinarian. She found out that if her house was set up for it, she could do the 10-day hold at home. The next morning, she went to animal control to pick up Daisy and make new arrangements.

Daisy was already dead.

Here’s how the lawsuit that Bulfin later filed in federal court describes what happened next:

“Rather than holding Daisy for ten (10) days, the individual Defendants, acting alone and in concert with others, unlawfully ‘seized’ Daisy by immediately euthanizing her within minutes of her relinquishment, in clear contradiction to local ordinances and to St. Louis County’s ‘official’ policies,� it alleges. “At no time did Ms. Bulfin request or authorize ACC or the individual Defendants to euthanize Daisy. In fact, Ms. Bulfin and the person temporarily relinquishing Daisy to ACC, for purposes of complying with state and local quarantine ordinances, both expressly stated in no uncertain terms that they did not want Daisy to be euthanized.�

When Bulfin and Nea found out their dog had been killed, they were horrified. They didn’t have the heart to tell Skylar. Instead, they told her a version of the “Daisy’s gone to the rescue farm� story that so many parents have told their children when a pet dies. Eventually, Skylar overheard her older siblings talking about what happened.

“I was in complete shock,� Bulfin remembers. “I felt like I was going to be sick. They didn’t offer any explanation or apology.�

Bulfin hired lawyers Dan Kolde, who specializes in animal cases, and Mark Pedroli, who has recently been doing battle with St. Louis County government over wrongful deaths at the county jail. According to court records, rather than apologize for their mistake, St. Louis County has consistently said it did nothing wrong, going so far as to countersue Nea at one point. U.S. District Court Judge John Bodenhausen dismissed that lawsuit as “meritless.�

Bulfin’s lawsuit has uncovered a pattern of what Pedroli and Kolde, in court filings, call “fraud� related to animal deaths: County workers consistently require people bringing dogs to the shelter to sign an inaccurate form that says they consent to euthanasia, even when they explicitly have said the opposite.

“It’s ghoulish,� Pedroli says. “It’s like a house of horrors.�

An audit found similar patterns. The administration of St. Louis County Executive Sam Page has said they plan to privatize the shelter, in part because of the audit’s findings. That audit, which recommended high priority changes to the county’s animal shelter operation, came out before Daisy was killed.

Bulfin didn’t even get to see her dog to say goodbye. The shelter decapitated Daisy and sent her head to a state veterinary lab to be tested. Pedroli and Kolde had to fight for more than a year to get those documents from St. Louis County, at one point getting the judge to admonish county attorneys for delays and obfuscation.

County Counselor Beth Orwick declined to comment because the litigation is pending.

Bulfin didn’t want to be where she is now, with this lawsuit headed to a trial, and her family having to relive the horror of Daisy’s untimely death.

“We thought they would issue us an apology,� she says. “That didn’t happen at all. They attacked my husband. They made outrageous claims. They keep embellishing these bizarre stories about what happened. It’s scary to me that they have control over all these other living beings that they don’t care too much about. They have no idea what they’re doing.�