About 3 weeks ago, a pit bull was running around my friend’s neighborhood. There is no breed ban there, but pits are required to be neutered, microchiped, and are not allowed off your property without a muzzle. He was none of those things.
After a few days of the dog just being at large, my friend caught him and took him in. He’s a really nice dog. Housebroken, good manners, good with kids. No signs of abuse. One of her dogs hated him immediately, or she would have kept him. She contacted every vet and shelter in the area, no one had reported him missing, so she had him neutered, vetted, and microchiped, and sent out a facebook plea for someone to take him in. I’ve always liked the breed, and he sounded nice, so I said I would take him. We have a farm out in the country 2 hours from my friend’s neighborhood. He’s been here 3 days, and we like him a lot.
Now today the owners come forward. They were moving to the neighborhood, and left the dog in the new house for a few days alone (yeah). The handyman accidentally let him out. The way they found my friend was one of the people in the neighborhood knows the handyman. They haven’t been looking for him or anything, as evidenced by the complete lack of letting any shelters or vets know he was missing, or calling any of the above to see if he’d turned up. No craigslist ad, nothing. Bah.
As it stands now, the owners are going to have to reimburse vet expenses and drive up here to get him. And then I guess I have to give him back, even though they sound like pretty crappy dog owners. I kind of doubt they’re going to be willing to do that. I hope they’re not. At least they’re not abusive. Ugh. I don’t want to give him back.
Depends how hard you want to play it with the supposed owners.
I think it’d be fair that they provide some proof this is their dog and that they pay for the bills incurred which made him “legal” in your area.
Or you could try and see if you could talk them into letting you keep him and/or you could offer to pay them something for the dog.
You indicated you live in a rural area. I would guess you are on a first name basis with the police/sheriff in your area. May be worth a call to them to see what legal options you have. They’d probably be helpful.
I believe he’s their dog. They told my friend his name (Bruce), and he responds to it. I don’t wish to be a jerk about it, I just question what kind of person loses a dog for weeks and doesn’t even look for him. There are no laws in my area regarding dogs, he’s perfectly legal here. I suspect if she didn’t call the owners, they wouldn’t try too hard to get him back. I just don’t really think that’s the right thing to do. It will be interesting to see how they respond to the fact he’s been “altered.”
I agree with you that while it might be the right thing to do to give them their dog back, it is not in the dog’s best interests. If it were me I think I would require them to cough up for everything the dog has needed and to come get him. If they’re willing to do that, sigh, I guess I’d give him back. I suspect they wouldn’t.
Yeah, they have to pay the vet bill before they get him back, and I’m not delivering. If they don’t want him that badly, I’m not jumping through hoops to return him.
If he’s a really nice and well-behaved dog, then maybe the owners aren’t so bad. Maybe there are extenuating circumstances for their story – like they were going to check on the dog every day (or have a friend do it), or something like that.
The OP might be absolutely right, but hopefully his/her desire to keep the dog won’t override his/her judgment… it would be terrible to deprive a good family (if not perfect) of their dog.
Definitely call your local animal control and the one in the area where he was found and find out what your ownership status is and what the original owner’s rights to the dog are. Are they obliged to pay you for his vet, etc? Can you (or the friend that found him) demand a fee for caring for him? And yeah, they may not want him back, now that is neutered.
I know of a case where a dog was dumped - literally left by the side of a country road with his bed. The dog was caught, vetted, placed with a rescue, and then the dumper had second thoughts and wanted his dog back. There was some negotiation, with the rescue not wanting to give the dog back and eventually, the financial costs that were owing for the rescue keeping the dog were so great, the owner that initially dumped the dog gave up.
It’s tough when you live in an area where there aren’t any laws to back you up. Still, possession tends to be the golden rule. Generally, if there is any animal control agency, strays are required to be relinquished to the agency and the owners are given 5-7 days to claim their animal. After that, the dog/cat goes up for adoption (or the finder can claim him/her) and even if the owners turn up, it’s too late for them.
Maybe check your state laws? Even if the county you live in has no animal control, there might be something on the books somewhere regarding how strays should be handled as far as ownership when found. For example: If the finder of the dog demonstrates reasonable effort in finding his/her owners, then after X amount of days, the dog is theirs. Even more so if the finder has invested money into the animal’s medical care, which your friend did.
Heck, your friend could very well have grounds to demand payment for her expenses in taking care of their dog which was not vetted to the local laws in the first place, and still not give the dog back.
Personally, if my contact information was out there where the owners could find it with reasonable effort on their part, I would leave it at that. If the dog came into my possession some number of weeks ago, I hear this story now which means they should have found my information already, then that’s it. If they ever got around to calling me, I’d start with reimbursing all expenses including boarding. The shelters here do that, they charge the owners for the spay/neuter surgery, vaccines, any other medical treatments (usually at least deworming and topical flea control), plus boarding expenses, nobody keeps a dog under their roof for free.
My focus here has been on doing the right thing. I’m not trying to steal anyone’s dog. But breeding pit bulls is just fucking irresponsible (not because they’re bad dogs, because the pounds are absolutely full of them), and illegal in the area they’ve moved to. This info makes me much less willing to just give the dog back.
The fact that he has been used as a breeding animal just might give you the opening you need to press your case to keep him. There are numerous counties and states that are very lenient on OWNING animals, but not nearly so lenient on BREEDING them. Definitely check with your local animal protection authority and be sure to mention he was a pit bull used for breeding. That’s a bit of a red flag with any animal organization.
I’m glad you had him neutered, then. Theres less chance they’ll want him back. Yeah, leaving a breeding animal alone in a house is the height of irresponsibility. (Not saying it was right to breed him. I’m glad you took away the possibility he can sire any more puppies. Leaving any dog alone without someone taking care of him is cruel.) Reputable breeders take care of their dogs and are more interested in maintaining the positive traits of the breed. Backyard breeders, less so. They’re all about making money. It’s too bad about the other dogs, though. Hopefully someone can shut them down.
Yes, it’s definitely illegal in the area they moved to. This thing is kind of frustrating for me because my friend is the one dealing with them, so I’m getting snippets of info second hand. Not that I really want to deal with them myself, but I wish I knew exactly what was going on. Right now I don’t even know if they want him back.
Ugh. I don’t want to give him back.