Let me play devil's advocate for a moment.
Does anyone know if the adoption agency contacted the new "owners" and asked them to come in and fill out the proper paperwork? How did they know where the new owners lived, to go get the puppy? It it possible/probable, that there were attempts to get a home and background check that were ignored by the new "owners" until they learned how serious the adoption agency was when they showed up for the pup? Is it possible that they thought because they know Ellen Degeneres that they thought they didn't need to go through the same process other adopters need to go through? I don't know if that is the case or not. But it is possible that they are just as responsible for what happened as the adoption agency. They may have been able to avoid the whole "heartbroken" children fiasco by doing what needed to be done to keep the puppy.

Again, I don't know if any of that happened. I am just suggesting that there may be two sides to the story, and I seriously hope that this does not ruin the reputation of a rescue if it is truly doing good work for dogs.