I was given a promised that if Sophie was returned to the shelter, that they would contact me.

This breed is not normally aggressive. Youthful actions and fear have been labelled as aggression and fair consistent training can turn this around. I've worked with many springers who are "too big for their britches" to place them in permanent homes.

Owners usually set this breed up for failure by not reading the dog's signals.

In this case, I was told that the shelter was the expert in placing dogs. (Young, purebred dogs equal $$)

Why was Sophie euth'd? a dog fight? where someone was bit breaking it up? This isn't reasonable to the shelter's published mission.

No one expects every staff member to be an expert on all breeds but there is a need for the shelter to use the resources available to them.

That was their choice.
Sadly
Donna Toews
English Springer Rescue