Animal Shelter Mistakenly Euthanizes Family's Pet Cat After It Got 'Increasingly Aggressive'

BERKS COUNTY, Pa. (CBS) -- An animal shelter in Berks County mistakenly euthanized a family's pet cat earlier this week.

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Tom Hubric, the interim executive director of the Animal Rescue League of Berks County, wrote on the shelter's Facebook page that the cat was originally brought in on Sunday.

The cat was scanned twice for a microchip, but the front desk staff and the cat staff were unable to find one.

The cat, which was given a physical and vaccines, was becoming "increasingly aggressive to the point where the staff could not safely access the cage to provide it with proper care" on Monday, according to Hubric.

The staff reportedly spent over two hours searching for its owner on the shelter's Facebook page and their lost cat logs.

"As a result, I made the very difficult decision to euthanize this cat," wrote Hubric. "It was a very difficult decision and one that I did not take lightly."

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On Tuesday, the cat's owner went to the shelter after learning the animal was taken there by a neighbor.

After the owner told them the cat did, in fact, have a microchip, the shelter did a third scan and found the chip had migrated high up on its neck, close to the base of its skull.

"I would like to apologize to the community for the terrible situation that has occurred and especially to the family who has been so profoundly affected. We will continue to work to make improvements with our procedures to do our very best to minimize the number of animals that are euthanized," wrote Hubric.

Hubric added the shelter has nearly 200 cats between their facility and those in foster and that 100 percent of their cat rooms are full.