An English Setter who captured hearts in Denver over the past week because of a race to save him from euthanasia will get a second chance in a new home.

The former owners of Watson, a 10-year-old of the rare hunting breed, turned him over to the Denver Animal Shelter after he bit the family’s 2-year-old, who had fallen on Watson and startled him while the dog slept.

Susan Dunlap, director of Texas-based Southwest English Setter Rescue, said the parents got in touch with the organization to find a different home for Watson and said they could get him back from the Denver Animal Shelter once they found somewhere else to take him in.

But after the Southwest English Setter Rescue agreed to take Watson in, the family reportedly learned the shelter planned to put Watson down at the end of a 10-day bite quarantine, Dunlap told The Denver Gazette, a hold that a spokesperson for the Denver Department of Public Health and Environment said is standard to make sure the animal does not have rabies.

“We knew we were racing against the clock for sure,” Dunlap said.

In a statement, a spokesperson for the Denver Department of Public Health and Environment reiterated the shelter’s position that Watson’s owners intended to surrender him after inflicting “serious injury to a child,” and said the shelter makes decisions about animals in the community’s best interest after looking at their past behavior.

“Watson’s past behavior and recent severe bite (a level 4 on a scale of 6 — where 6 is injury that causes death) to the face is consistent with definition of a ‘potentially dangerous animal,’ in Denver’s municipal code,” wrote Emily Williams in an email. “As such, DAP does not adopt out or transfer out animals that fall into this category. DAP is returning Watson to his owners with their understanding that they are taking on the responsibility of ownership or transfer of Watson to another party.”

Dunlap said at the beginning of last week when she first heard from Watson’s former owners, she believed the process to take him in would be straightforward because it’s not uncommon for English Setters to bite or nip at children when they’re startled.

She saw finding a new home for Watson without children to be a natural solution. She disputed the Denver Animal Shelter’s characterization of Watson as a dangerous animal, drawing a line between a defensive response and a violent attack.

She also said she tried but struggled to get in touch with the Denver Animal Shelter once she learned of the shelter’s plans to euthanize Watson. She reached out to No Kill Colorado for help, which then contacted MaxFund Animal Adoption Center in Denver.

The rescues began posting Watson’s situation on social media around the middle of last week, which steadily gained attention and led to a protest on Friday outside the Denver Animal Shelter.

By Monday, the shelter decided to release Watson, and a volunteer from the Southwest English Setter Rescue picked him up. Dunlap said he has been happy and calm since, and is settling in with the person fostering him.

Kathy Gaines, executive director of MaxFund, said while she couldn’t speak for the Denver Animal Shelter, “We are left with the impression that the blowback from the public over this case is why they changed their mind. We have no reason to believe it was anything else.”

Dunlap described English Setters as a gentle breed among which incidents of “true aggression” are rare, but that biting or nipping when startled isn’t an uncommon defensive response, so they likely aren’t a suitable choice for families with young children if they’ve shown that tendency.

She worries that shelters not familiar with English Setters, given the breed’s rarity, end up euthanizing the dogs after biting incidents because they don’t know how else to handle the situation.

Gaines added that from her understanding of the incident with Watson’s family, he bit the toddler but immediately let go and backed away.

She said she’s also troubled with how the Denver Animal Shelter characterized a previous biting incident with Watson and the same child because, based on what she learned, he nipped at the baby but did not break skin.

“To me, to euthanize a dog for that implies that any dog not good with children should be euthanized. Whereas the reasonable response to us is to find a home without children for that kind of dog when it’s not considered to be a vicious kind of attack.”