A heartbroken Georgia family claimed an animal hospital told them their adored pet pug had to be put down, only for a worker to take the dog home and keep her.

Mother Rebecca Belote said her family's four-year-old black pug, Cha Cha, became intensely sick in March and was taken to Senoia Animal Hospital in Coweta County, about 40 miles south of Atlanta, WSB-TV reported.

Belote claimed she was told the beloved family pet had organ failure due to diabetic ketoacidosis, which causes extreme dehydration caused by a severe lack of insulin.

At the animal hospital's recommendation, the family paid to euthanize Cha Cha on March 4. Now, they are claiming they were led astray.

Belote alleged she was scrolling on Facebook in September when she spotted a picture of Cha Cha posted by a former hospital employee, who claimed a female worker had taken Cha Cha home.

She claimed to have spoken to the worker's husband, who allegedly confirmed the pug had been with his wife for months and in good health.

Belote told the outlet that the hospital eventually put Cha Cha down, but she insisted it was part of a cover-up to hide what allegedly happened.

'The fact that they put a healthy dog down,' Belote said. 'That's just sick.'

Belote said her husband Mark and 17-year-old son Cohen had been particularly affected when the family moved to euthanize Cha Cha.

'My son was really attached to the dog,' Belote said.

She added that the pug 'hardly walked anywhere [be]cause he carried her everywhere.'

'They had matching clothes,' Belote continued. 'Like matching hoodies that they would wear.'

Belote explained that the family chose to euthanize Cha Cha when they were told the medical costs to treat her would be thousands of dollars per month.

'There wasn't any guarantee that she'd have any quality of life,' Belote told local outlet Newnan Times-Herald.

Belote said her husband paid for the euthanasia and stayed with Cha Cha while she was sedated.

However, he left before the pug was actually euthanized. The family believed she had died and received a bill for $716.50, The Citizen reported.

'We thought she was gone and mourned her,' Belote said.

Belote claimed she realized Cha Cha had not been euthanized in September after reading online coverage of claims that the animal hospital had kept a family's cat after not euthanizing the pet.

Then, she saw the picture of Cha Cha posted by a former employee of the animal hospital.

'It made me sick,' Belote told the outlet. 'I recognized my dog, her posture and I recognized her little face.'

She added: 'It broke my heart thinking that she thought we left her there and went home with some other family.'

Even though the Belote family paid for Cha Cha to be euthanized on March 4, the death date was listed as August 12 on records cited by the outlet.

Belote claimed managers at the animal hospital denied her account of what happened.

'They have a lawyer,' Belote told WSB-TV. 'They won't talk about it.'

She said she had filed a complaint with the Georgia State Board of Veterinary Medicine.

Belote claimed the animal hospital worker who kept her dog was the same one accused of keeping the cat.

The worker's husband allegedly told her that the pug had been cared for but put down once the hospital was investigated about the cat.

Last year, Georgia father Brian Jagt took his 19-year-old ragdoll cat Annie to the animal hospital to be euthanized.

However, Annie was actually kept alive and stayed with the worker for roughly 18 months, according to the Newnan Times-Herald.

Jagt told the outlet that Courtney Bassin, a former veterinary technician at the hospital, was the one who told him that Annie was still alive.

Annie was eventually euthanized on August 13, the report continued.

The Senoia Police Department will not be pursuing criminal charges against anyone at the animal hospital.

'We feel the avenues the complainant can pursue with the state board of veterinary services and through civil court would be best,' Jason Ercole, the Senoia police's public information officer, told the outlet. 'We think it'd be hard and the prosecutors have left it up to us.'

'We can all agree there are some definite ethical issues here, but is there criminal intent?' he said. 'Have the people at the animal hospital done this to defraud people? We don't think that's a threshold we can reach in front of a jury.'

The Coweta County Solicitor’s Office told the Daily Mail on Tuesday morning that the incidents were currently pending review and further investigation. 

The Daily Mail has reached out to Senoia Animal Hospital, the Belote family, the Georgia State Board of Veterinary Medicine and Broussard through her husband for comment.