The death of a pet is always hard for its owner, but it's even harder when the pet dies at the hands of the people who are supposed to protect it.

Seventy-five-year-old Martha Takacs said she wishes her dog would have been hit by a car rather than accidentally put to sleep by the local branch of the Pennsylvania Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals in Centre Hall -- an accident she attributes to ignorance and carelessness.

Maya, the brown-eyed, white and brown collie mix that had been part of the Takacs family for 2 years, ran away from Paul Takacs, Martha's husband, near the couple's West Beaver Avenue apartment Jan. 11. The dog pulled her neck out of the collar, Takacs said, leaving her identification tags behind.

"As soon as she was lost, I called the SPCA, giving them a full description," Takacs said.

A friend of Takacs called the SPCA two days later to see if Maya had been brought in. The shelter again said that no dog with her description had come in.

But Maya was there that Monday morning. In fact, a Beaver Avenue resident had brought her to the SPCA hours after she ran away.

The paperwork that was done on Maya was apparently misplaced or overlooked by a part-time employee who had been working at the shelter for a few months, said John Matrisciano, the SPCA branch manager. And because nobody knew that Takacs had called to claim her dog, Maya was put to sleep the next day, he said.

The employee, whose name was not given, was reprimanded but was not fired, Matrisciano said.

"(The employee) told me it was an honest mistake -- I have no reason to doubt it," he said.

Matrisciano said he was sorry and offered Takacs another dog, but she said she would never get another pet from the SPCA.

"There's absolutely nothing I can do to make the situation right," Matrisciano said. "I can't bring back her dog. That's the terrible thing."

Several animals are "put down" every day to make space for new animals, Matrisciano said. He said he chose Maya as one of the animals because she was an adult and he believed that, if she was going to be adopted or claimed, it would have already happened.

Elaine Newton, director of operations at the Pennsylvania SPCA headquarters in Philadelphia, agreed with Matrisciano.

"The sad part of this is that lost dogs are usually not reclaimed," Newton said.

State law permits animal shelters to destroy animals without identification if they are not adopted or claimed after 48 hours, Newton said.

But Takacs said 48 hours is not enough time to find a pet -- especially if it is lost on a weekend, as Maya was. She said she plans to write the SPCA headquarters in Philadelphia to ask that the mandatory holding time be extended to 96 hours, since that would have been enough time to save her dog.

"After four days, I found her," Takacs said. "But she was dead."

Matrisciano agreed that the time period is too short and said that, if he could, he would extend it to 10 days. But there is always the problem of limited space, he said.

"I'd be the first to agree that it's not enough time," he said. "(Extending it) is a very good idea, but it's not feasible."

Takacs said she will still write to Philadelphia to try to prevent such an accident from happening to anyone else's pet.

"I'm a dog lover . . . and somebody has to speak up for defenseless animals," she said.

Matrisciano said from now on he is personally going to check all paperwork before an animal is destroyed.

"If you want to have something done right, you have to do it yourself," he said, adding that there will always be a possibility of human error.