CALGARY- A Calgary couple is heartbroken, after the dog they were trying to adopt was euthanized.

Three weeks ago, Nicole and Malcolm Graham found a one-year-old dog on their lawn. They kept it overnight, and say it behaved like any other pup.

“He went through the gamut, he played with our dogs in the backyard,” Malcolm Graham says. “We didn’t see anything that made us nervous.”

The next day they contacted Animal Services in hopes of returning ‘Kingston’ to his family, but his owners couldn’t be tracked down. The city then took it in for behavioural assessments which are standard procedure for adoptions—but Kingston failed the tests.

Kingston was euthanized on July 25, despite a family wanting to adopt him.

Graham says the city refused their numerous offers to try and help the dog themselves.

“They wouldn’t even entertain the idea of exploring options and bringing experts who are suited to this exact issue to the dog. We suggested to the city that we put the dog in a familiar environment and in training for specifically high-anxiety dogs. We committed to pay for that ourselves.”

The city says that the dog displayed fear, which usually leads to aggression, and they couldn’t take the risk of adopting Kingston out.

“In my opinion, if we adopt a dog out knowing that there’s a problem, we would still hold some liability,” explains Doug Anderson from Animal and Bylaw Services. “Because we were aware of it and still proceeded.”

Kingston was put down on Friday afternoon.