The pet dog of the Spanish nurse who came down with Ebola is facing death — officials are trying to kill it because it might spread the disease.

Government officials in Madrid have obtained a court order to euthanize and incinerate Excalibur, the beloved pet of Ebola victim Teresa Romero Ramos and her husband, Javier Limon Romero, the Daily Mail reported.

Ramos is the 44-year-old Galicia resident who on Monday became the first person to contract Ebola outside of West Africa. As a precaution, her husband was quarantined Tuesday in a separate room at the same hospital where she is

being monitored.



And because the couple’s dog could also spread the disease to humans, health officials have called for it to be put down as a precaution.

The move outraged Javier Romero, who called Tuesday for Excalibur to also be quarantined.

“I want to publicly denounce a man called Zarco, who I think is head of health for the community of Madrid and who’s told me that I have to sacrifice my dog,” he raged on social media.

“He’s asked for my consent and I’ve denied it, to which he responded that they would ask for a court order to enter my house and sacrifice it.”

Instead of allowing officials to come in and take Excalibur away from him, Romero handed over his four-legged best friend to the Madrid-based animal-welfare group Mascoteros Solidarios.

The group confirmed in a press release that the enraged dog owner indeed “ceded the custody” of his pet to Carlos Rodriguez, a lawyer working for Solidarios told the newspaper.

“Several animal-welfare groups and private individuals have mobilized following Javier’s message over social-networking sites about the plans to sacrifice the animal,” the release said.

Spanish authorities also were tracking down all the woman’s contacts, and put more than 50 other people under observation, including her relatives and fellow health care workers. “The priority now is to establish that there is no risk to anybody else,” emergency coordinator Fernando Simon said.

Even so, the potential repercussions of Ebola’s presence in Europe became clear, as shares of Spanish airline and hotel chain companies slumped in Tuesday’s trading. Spain is Europe’s biggest vacation destination after France, and investors were apparently spooked that the deadly virus could scare away travelers.

“All we want is for the authorities to consider the option of treating this animal like a human being and putting it into quarantine.”

But in a public statement of their own, Madrid health officials said taking the life of Excalibur would be completely justified — especially given the frightening situation surrounding a possible Ebola outbreak.

“The only way of eliminating the existing risk of the transmission of the illness is by putting the animal, which has been in contact with the virus, to sleep,” they said.

Animals, indeed, have been known to be the primary cause of Ebola outbreaks in Africa, according to Dr. Tom Frieden, director of the US Cnters for Disease Control and Prevention.

“In rural areas, it can infect mammals,” he said during a Tuesday press conference. “Probably bats and forest animals.”