The dog's owner deserves a great deal of the blame for this. That poor dog had neither a collar with tag, nor a microchip.

From the article -
The shelter impounded Target who unfortunately was not micro-chipped or wearing a collar.
As someone commented on another board -
first off..where was the tags, and information on the dog, which would have enabled the Dog Pound to locate the owner? More times than not, owners do not have have micro chipping or updated tags on their pets. How did this dog get out? I don't don't like these shelters that euthanize..but, if he was on TV with the dog..certainly he would have had taken better care than this???