Six puppies surround Greg Stillwell at his Tacoma home -- the only ones left from a litter of 11. The other five got lose Friday and were turned into the Tacoma-Pierce County Humane Society. They were then killed after being there only 5 hours.

"We know this is painful for the owner and are deeply sorry for what happened," says Kitty Gibbs of the Humane Society.

The Humane Society says it's their policy to keep animals at least four days before they're euthanized and can't explain why two of their staff members ignored that policy.

"We are investigating what happened and are planning on taking corrective action which includes disciplining the staff who were involved in this incident, reviewing our policies and holding additional staff training to make sure this type of incident never happens again," Gibbs said.

That's not good enough for Stillwell. He wants the agency prosecuted.

"I think there needs to be a change," he said. "I think we need to drive a message home with the Humane Society really hard that this was unconscionable and uncalled for."

After our first story on Monday, we received quite a bit of e-mail from readers -- many of who are outraged at what happened. But others are saying the blame should be spread around asking the owner "how did he let those puppies get free?" and "why isn't the mother dog spayed?"

Stillwell responds: "They got out by maybe a kid next door playing with the pups while I was at work and left the gate open."

He admits that he sold last year's litter at $120 per puppy and planned on selling these, though he says he's not running a "puppy mill." He now believes it's a good idea to spay Boonie -- the puppies' mother.

"That's what I'm going to do this year is spay her and I'm not running a puppy mill," Stillwell said. "She just got out one night."

But Stillwell says no matter what happened at his end, there's no excuse for the puppies to be killed before he had a chance to claim them.

The requirement that the shelter wait 96 hours before euthanizing an animal is a city ordinance. The Tacoma city attorney tells us the shelter may have violated the policy, but it's not considered a crime.