Hey everyone, I need your advice on a situation that my in laws are going through with a dog they found on the side of the road almost a month ago. The original owners are now claiming the dog back after my in laws decided to keep it. The poor pup was in bad shape when they found it, and now it’s happy and healthy with them.
The shelter is caught in the middle, and my in laws are heartbroken over the thought of losing this dog. Can they fight for the dog? Should they offer money to the original owners? Or should they wait and reach out later to see if the owners would be willing to sell the dog?
I’m looking for some insights and advice on how they can handle this situation. Let’s brainstorm together and help my in laws keep their furry friend! 🐶💔 #JusticeForDog
If it’s worth the money to them, their best bet is to meet with an attorney to get some disinterested advice as to not only the relevant property rules here, but how to best go about communicating with the other party. I am an attorney, not in New York. Their offering to buy the dog sounds like it might work, but if the other party says no, they need to return it. An experienced attorney can both help them to know the rules, but also help them strategize how to accomplish what they want: to keep the dog, either with permission from the true owner or by purchasing it from them.
Sounds like the original owners may not have updated their microchip info and were actively searching for their lost dog. Any decent human being would return the dog to the owners. If they can prove that they were actively searching for the dog, they will likely win if it goes before a judge.
When you say “the shelter” what do you mean?
Is this a municipal government shelter? Is it a 501c3 contracted with the government, or is it a private 501c3, or is it just a non- charity organization?
You mentioned in another comment that the person who contacted you has all the documentation that shows they are the original owner of the dog, so it’s their dog. I don’t really see them wanting to sell the dog after probably going through hell trying to find him/her again! I’m not sure what their story is – maybe they aren’t tech savvy, maybe they have health issues, idk – but they finally found their dog and it’s the right thing to return the dog to their original owner.
I am not a lawyer, but I am involved with animals/rescues. If your inlaws found the dog and notified the shelter who allowed them to foster the dog, then legally, the dog belonged to them after the “stray hold.” Assuming they didn’t sign some sort of foster only paperwork. The length of a stray hold varies by state and is often longer if the pet is microchipped to leave more time to attempt to contact the owner. If it’s been 25 days, that’s well above most states stray hold laws. They should contact a lawyer and be prepared to show proof of the medical care they have provided for the dog and that a shelter was contacted. It sounds like the shelter is trying to say the dog was still being “fostered,” and your inlaws never officially adopted it. If that’s the case, then yes, they have to give it back because the dog would be considered to belong to the shelter. Did they sign any sort of foster agreement? Or did they sign any sort of adoption agreement?
I don’t see any avenues for your parents here without any official adoption paperwork. The police have caught them trying to steal someone’s dog. It also sounds like neither your parents nor the shelter put in any actual effort toward finding the dogs owner in good faith. It seems completely reasonable to me that it took this dogs owner several weeks to find one singular Facebook post about their found dog. I think the shelter mistakenly got your parents’ hopes up without making a reasonable effort to find the dog’s owner.
The situation is pretty messed-up.
Your in-laws should ask reimbursement for the boarding & any care they provided to the dog at prevailing market rates. They are owed that much, since they’ve presumably spent money on food & supplies at the bare minimum. If the real owner isn’t human garbage, they’ll happily pay the person who saved & cared for their pet for a month while it was lost. If the owner is garbage, they’ll stop trying to get the dog back, problem solved.
The whole “unofficial foster” thing is weird, as is the lack of paperwork. Even if everything was done correctly, though, returning a lost pet to its owners, as long as they’re not demonstrably neglectful, is the right thing to do.
I’d say the shelter also owes them. There are presumably plenty of pups without owners, and while they’ve become attached to the one they found, it’d be even sweeter to provide a home for one who is truly abandoned. The right thing for the shelter to do would be to waive all adoption fees on another dog.
There’s not much that’s practical to do from a legal standpoint, and picking a legal fight with owners who cared enough to have their dog chipped and who seem to have been searching for their lost pet is a really wrongheaded thing to do.
Its a real bummer but as a dog owner I can’t imagine FINDING YOUR DOG and then they won’t give it back.
You parents were great fosters. The dog will probably be overjoyed to see their original owners. Your parents should be too.
There are SO many dogs in shelters, tell them to adopt one and make another dog’s life better.
Weirdly, I just dealt with an illegal dog adoption in NY and learned a lot. Dogs are property in the state of NY and the original owners will have all the rights.
Additionally, depending where + when they adopted the dog from initially (the original owners) there are most likely legal covenants that prevent anyone from rehoming the dog other than the original shelter or breeder, which would void the adoption that your parents had.
That Sheriff must be bored, and likely has zero legal grounds to demand anything. Animals are property, legally, so this is a civil matter.
Who cares about the legality? How sad of a human do you have to be to not return someone’s lost pet?
They are stealing someone’s dog wtf
This is just an all-around, sad situation. But if everyone involved loves the animal, then the right outcome is that the dog will be safe and loved no matter the owner.