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A Belgian Malinois service dog named Major has spent more than 545 days isolated in Kennel 600 at the Austin Animal Center in Texas, as his owner, Shane Lilly, fights in federal court to save him from a euthanasia order. A federal judge once again delayed the euthanasia on September 29, 2026, giving Lilly a few more days before a ruling is expected.
The case began in March 2025, when Major, a 65-pound Belgian Malinois Lilly had purchased from a breeder in 2024 for $15,000, was hit by a white pickup truck while the two were walking together in Austin’s Montopolis neighborhood.
In the chaos immediately after the collision, a bystander trying to help Major was bitten.
The city took Major in for observation over possible rabies exposure and later obtained a municipal court order authorizing his euthanasia, arguing he posed a danger to the public.
The order was reaffirmed after a county court judge found Major had caused serious bodily injury, and Texas’s highest court later declined to revive Lilly’s appeal, leaving the euthanasia order in place.
Lilly has since taken the fight to federal court, filing a disability lawsuit against the city and three shelter employees, arguing Major’s role as a service animal wasn’t properly considered and that alternatives to euthanasia should have been evaluated.
Senior U.S. District Judge David Alan Ezra is now weighing Lilly’s request for an independent third-party evaluation of whether Major could be safely rehabilitated or retrained, and said he would rule within 10 days as of the September 29 hearing.
“My beloved service animal, Major, faces an unjust death sentence that no animal deserves,” Lilly wrote in a petition asking for public support.
The case has drawn demonstrators outside the courthouse and shelter, some holding signs reading “FREE MAJOR” and “MERCY FOR MAJOR.”
My thoughts: The length of time involved is what makes this case different from most, 545 days is well over a year, which means Major has spent longer in isolation at this point than the legal process that’s supposed to determine his fate has taken to resolve.
Whatever the right outcome turns out to be, that gap between how long shelter isolation lasts and how long courts take to rule is a structural problem worth noticing on its own, separate from the specifics of this one dog.
The case is genuinely contested: a bystander was bitten, and the city has argued public safety at every stage, while Lilly’s legal team is arguing the process itself failed to account for Major’s status as a trained service animal.
Given that it’s still working through federal court, the responsible thing is to note both sides rather than pick one, and wait for the ruling.
Source: Austin American-Statesman, with additional reporting from Ground News, Jingletree, and SSBCrack News
