The Jack Russell-cross named Biscuit was destroyed despite its owner, Georgie Martin, identifying the dog as hers.

The council has a policy of putting dogs down if they remain unidentified after three days, but Biscuit was not even given that long.

Ms Martin found Biscuit in the pound the day after she went missing.

"She was so happy to see us, but there was nobody there," she said.

After calling the pound's phone number, she was told to go to the council office to pay for Biscuit's release.

Ms Martin had not registered Biscuit with the council, and so she first had to pay $180 to register the dog, and then another $200 to have her released from the pound. On Thursday afternoon Ms Martin could only afford to pay the registration fee, and told the council she would be back in the morning to pay the release fee.

"I didn't have that sort of cash, so I had to borrow some money. I was even counting out my gold coins," she said.

On Friday morning Ms Martin paid the $200 fee at the council offices, and then went to the pound to pick up Biscuit at 9am.

"The woman at the pound looked stunned when she looked at my receipts."

Not knowing where Biscuit was, or if she was okay, Ms Martin went home and called the council.

But it wasn't until 4.55pm Ms Martin's call was returned.

"They said 'I hate to inform you but there's been a terrible mistake.'"

Biscuit was dead.

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