Finders Keepers.

[Blackdogs]

I'm not big on rants, and I'm a fairly easy going sort, but there is one thing that really gets to me. The sense of entitlement some people have over dogs/cats that they find.

I work in the pet industry and we constantly have lost pets dropped off to us. We scan them for a microchip and if they don't have one they go to the pound where the owner has an opportunity to find them.

This process is generally an effective one and I've not heard of any animals falling through the cracks and being euthanised before their owners have a chance to locate them (though that's not to say it has never happened). So we have these protocols for a reason. If an owner is genuinely trying to locate their pet it's a sytem that works.

Despite this, I spend a lot of time trying to wrangle pets from the vice-like grip of the people who found them and wish to keep them. They usually come up with a myriad of reasons as to why they should not leave the animal with us. Sometimes it appears to be genuine concern, but most times, particularly when it comes to purebred animals, it seems to be greed.

This year alone I could tell you many stories about dogs and cats having been held on to by finders for weeks to years (the most being five years!) before coming in to us, being microchip scanned and locating their original, very emotional owners.

I would like to change the minds of anyone here who thinks the better option is to hold on to an animal and put posters up. It's very possible the animal is from another area, has been missing for some time or that the owners could simply miss the posters.

If you go to the lost and found section of Gumtree, you will find numerous heart-broken owners of missing pets posting week in week out for months or even years.

I had a cat escape and go missing a couple of years back. He was registered, microchipped and clearly well looked after. However, he was a purebred and very social. There isn't a day that goes by that I don't wonder what happened to him.

If you find an animal, please do not hold on to it, because it does not belong to you and you have no rights over the animal, not even by law.

Edited December 13, 2011 by Blackdogs

[Purdie]

Blackdogs ;Your post should be printed in every local paper in the land.I have lost 2 dogs over the years ,one escaped and one stolen never to be seen again in spite of our best efforts to find them..I share you pain and frustration.

[Blackdogs]

Blackdogs ;Your post should be printed in every local paper in the land.I have lost 2 dogs over the years ,one escaped and one stolen never to be seen again in spite of our best efforts to find them..I share you pain and frustration.

It's frustrating and devastating, isn't it.

It really boggles the mind that some people cannot seem understand the magnitude of what they are doing in holding on to pets.

[Dame Aussie]

This was also my experience when I worked at a pound.

People would say that they couldn't believe noone had claimed a dog...ummm no cause it was in their back yard the whole time!

People who lose dogs look for them at the pound so that is where they should be, but do people listen? Do they ever? Feels like you're fighting a losing battle.

[Topoftheheap]

I agree with you. Over my lifetime i have had two cats simply disappear from my life. I have no idea what happened to them. And its horrible not knowing. My sister and her husband's two dogs got out, and they were lost for months, then one day he saw them in an old ladies front yard. She screamed at him when he went up and said they were his, and told him that he had lost them (they got out after a fox, who also killed four chickens that night, broke the wire, the dogs chased the intruder out, and never returned, presumed dead despite days of searching!) and she had kept them and looked after them, and it was his loss!

[fuzzy82]

We took in a stray cat a few years ago, found her up the road and she'd been wandering around the streets here for about a week when we decided she would get hit by a car if we didn't do anything. The very next morning we took her to the vet, but she wasn't microchipped. The vet said we could either keep her and try to locate the owner, or they could pass her on to the pound, "but then she might get put to sleep".

She was a lovely, sociable cat, so we left our details with the vet in case anyone called, took her home and put up posters everywhere, and we also posted on every lost and found pet site we could find. One person called but didn't leave a number and we never heard from her again, other than that there was no interest.

So it's not just bad people who keep pets. We didn't want her to be put to sleep, which is most likely what would have happened at the pound. We assumed she'd been dumped, because otherwise someone would have been looking for her. If my cat was missing I would check everywhere, call every vet etc. I might try the pound first, but if the cat wasn't at the pound I would try everywhere else.

[AmaCam+Digby]

Frustrating and Devastating are two words for it!!

I had a beautiful ginger cat with a person-personality, great foot warming and listening abilities, collar, microchiped and on the register at the Cat Protection Society and local council so he was basically a boomerang if ever he ever got lost (which he didn't - he loved food too much).

Then one day he never came in for dinner. With all the precautions I know that if he was handed in I hoped I would have been contacted pretty much straight away. I figured that even if he had died I would have been contacted if he was taken to a vet? It has been six years and I still wonder about him.

People have to know that there is a difference between a LOST animal (as in someone has lost it, is lost from somewhere) and a feral/stray animal (who has no one missing it), and the only way to figure out which the animal is is to take it somewhere that can check for them and take the proper steps. Otherwise they run the risk of having STOLEN someones family member (and to put it bluntly, someones property).

Argh rant.... sorry, still hurting I guess...

[megan_]

Why didn't you take her to the pound and put your name on her so she didn't get PTS? not having a go, I'm trying to understand

[Her Majesty Dogmad]

One of my rescue group's foster dogs got out during a storm recently. The foster carers had removed his collar and tag against my express instructions. He was gone for 5 days. Luckily this guy saw our poster which said (truthfully) that the dog was on medication and called. He'd picked him up during the storm and said he had intended to keep the dog, he was on the thin side (Italian Greyhounds are usually) and thought that noone wanted him.

Thank God we got him back.

[lovemymutts]

It is interesting, I find many rescue or animal related orgs/groups who go on about not taking dogs to pounds, RSPCA or AWL because to quote 'it will just get put down' so many have a fear of contacting anyone when they find a dog & either want to keep it or hand it straight to rescue. If my dog was loose & found I would want the council contacted & my dog taken to the pound to be scanned etc. These other organisations/councils are just doing their job, we need to do they right thing by the dogs owners & notify the council. In most instances the council will collect but there have been times when I have notified the councils in the area with as much detail about the dog as possible, even passed on a photo so if anyone phones them it can be returned & that's been fine. But please people don't create hype so people are fearful about doing the right thing & if you find a dog please contact your council & take the dog to be scanned.

[Blackdogs]

We took in a stray cat a few years ago, found her up the road and she'd been wandering around the streets here for about a week when we decided she would get hit by a car if we didn't do anything. The very next morning we took her to the vet, but she wasn't microchipped. The vet said we could either keep her and try to locate the owner, or they could pass her on to the pound, "but then she might get put to sleep".

She was a lovely, sociable cat, so we left our details with the vet in case anyone called, took her home and put up posters everywhere, and we also posted on every lost and found pet site we could find. One person called but didn't leave a number and we never heard from her again, other than that there was no interest.

So it's not just bad people who keep pets. We didn't want her to be put to sleep, which is most likely what would have happened at the pound. We assumed she'd been dumped, because otherwise someone would have been looking for her. If my cat was missing I would check everywhere, call every vet etc. I might try the pound first, but if the cat wasn't at the pound I would try everywhere else.

It was wrong of vet to say that to you. You could have put the cat through the proper channels and put your name on it if it came up for destruction.

Now you have a cat that someone may be pining over and that one day, you may be asked to hand back.

It is possible the cat escaped and traveled from the area of residence, so the owners may not have had the opportunity to see the posters. Further, not everyone is aware of lost and found internet sites.

I don't think you are bad people for doing this, just misinformed and misguided, to the potential detriment of some grieving pet owner.

[Blackdogs]

I agree with you. Over my lifetime i have had two cats simply disappear from my life. I have no idea what happened to them. And its horrible not knowing. My sister and her husband's two dogs got out, and they were lost for months, then one day he saw them in an old ladies front yard. She screamed at him when he went up and said they were his, and told him that he had lost them (they got out after a fox, who also killed four chickens that night, broke the wire, the dogs chased the intruder out, and never returned, presumed dead despite days of searching!) and she had kept them and looked after them, and it was his loss!

:eek:

What happened in the end? Did he get them back?

[Rozzie]

I find it somewhat ironic that some people on this forum have been lauded for doing exactly this.

[Mags]

Many years ago we had a dog get out and spent days looking for her, posters up, had done the rounds of the vets, notified council, checked the pounds repeatedly etc. People had found her just after she got out and took her home. Despite her being microchipped, and having a collar with contact numbers on it. The wife fully intended to keep her as she was good with the kids and was a well trained polite dog. Thankfully the husband came home on RDO's, he worked away from home, and managed to work out something was not right (wife had taken her collar and tags off), saw a poster and rang us. He then brought her back and apologised for his wife's behaviour. It was absolutely devastating to have lost her and it was clear we would not have got her back if the husband had not come home.

Edited December 13, 2011 by Mags

[Blackdogs]

I find it somewhat ironic that some people on this forum have been lauded for doing exactly this.

I find it disturbing that educated DOLers would condone this behaviour, no matter how well-intentioned the finders are.

[Blackdogs]

Many years ago we have had a dog get out and spent days looking for her, posters up, had done the rounds of the vets, notified council, checked the pounds repeatedly etc. People had found her just after she got out and took her home. Despite her being microchipped, and having a collar with contact numbers on it. The wife fully intended to keep her as she was good with the kids and was a well trained polite dog. Thankfully the husband came home on RDO's, he worked away from home, and managed to work out something was not right (wife had taken her collar and tags off), saw a poster and rang us. He then brought her back and apologised for his wife's behaviour. It was absolutely devastating to have lost her and it was clear we would not have got her back if the husband had not come home.

Oh dear, Mags. How awful. I am so glad you got your dog back and I am so glad that he managed to see the poster.

When people find well looked after animals, that are well trained and socialised, surely it must twig that the animal belongs to someone who is missing them greatly!

[Blackdogs]

This was also my experience when I worked at a pound.

People would say that they couldn't believe noone had claimed a dog...ummm no cause it was in their back yard the whole time!

People who lose dogs look for them at the pound so that is where they should be, but do people listen? Do they ever? Feels like you're fighting a losing battle.

I find people use all sorts of silly, nonsensical justifications for holding on to a pet that they semselves do not really believe.

[Blackdogs]

Frustrating and Devastating are two words for it!!

I had a beautiful ginger cat with a person-personality, great foot warming and listening abilities, collar, microchiped and on the register at the Cat Protection Society and local council so he was basically a boomerang if ever he ever got lost (which he didn't - he loved food too much).

Then one day he never came in for dinner. With all the precautions I know that if he was handed in I hoped I would have been contacted pretty much straight away. I figured that even if he had died I would have been contacted if he was taken to a vet? It has been six years and I still wonder about him.

People have to know that there is a difference between a LOST animal (as in someone has lost it, is lost from somewhere) and a feral/stray animal (who has no one missing it), and the only way to figure out which the animal is is to take it somewhere that can check for them and take the proper steps. Otherwise they run the risk of having STOLEN someones family member (and to put it bluntly, someones property).

Argh rant.... sorry, still hurting I guess...

When you don't know what has hapened to your pet, the hurt seems to linger forever. At least with death there is some closure. This is why I take in to be scanned any dead animals I find on the side of the road.

Holding on to an animal, whatever the justification, is just plain theft.

[Blackdogs]

One of my rescue group's foster dogs got out during a storm recently. The foster carers had removed his collar and tag against my express instructions. He was gone for 5 days. Luckily this guy saw our poster which said (truthfully) that the dog was on medication and called. He'd picked him up during the storm and said he had intended to keep the dog, he was on the thin side (Italian Greyhounds are usually) and thought that noone wanted him.

Thank God we got him back.

Oh no. Was the dog ok, having been without his meds for so long?

[Blackdogs]

It is interesting, I find many rescue or animal related orgs/groups who go on about not taking dogs to pounds, RSPCA or AWL because to quote 'it will just get put down' so many have a fear of contacting anyone when they find a dog & either want to keep it or hand it straight to rescue. If my dog was loose & found I would want the council contacted & my dog taken to the pound to be scanned etc. These other organisations/councils are just doing their job, we need to do they right thing by the dogs owners & notify the council. In most instances the council will collect but there have been times when I have notified the councils in the area with as much detail about the dog as possible, even passed on a photo so if anyone phones them it can be returned & that's been fine. But please people don't create hype so people are fearful about doing the right thing & if you find a dog please contact your council & take the dog to be scanned.

You are right. The function and value of pounds really needs to be made clearer. Many people equate pounds with euthanasia. Of course it happens, but I'm sure many more lost dogs are returned than euthanised.