Family Upset After Shelter Puts Down Pet

[Burkes]

Canberra Times - 2 September 2013

Canberra's Domestic Animal Services facility has defended its decision to put down a Gordon family's pet dog, 10 days after it went missing.

There will be a review of animal control processes after mother-of-three Kayla Stewart said the family's pet ridgeback, four-year-old Dexter, was put down by staff before the family could collect the dog from a shelter.

Dexter went missing on August 19 and staff at the centre and RSPCA officers told Ms Stewart the dog had not been found.

On August 28 she received an eight-day-old letter notifying her that the dog was at the animal shelter in Symonston. The letter warned the dog would be sold or put down if unclaimed after seven days.

When Ms Stewart's partner and son went to collect the dog, they were told Dexter had been put down.

''We have had a bit of trouble with our neighbours and they do complain about our dog so we keep him in a pen, but the gate was left open for some reason,'' she said.

''The staff were rude to my partner and didn't explain why they had put him down or anything. 'Everyone that knew my dog said he was like a big teddy bear … so I don't understand why he was given the needle.''

She said Territory and Municipal Services staff said the dog's body could not be returned to the family for burial ''because it had been taken to the tip''.

A services spokeswoman said on Friday that a male dog, registered as a bull mastiff, was impounded on the morning of August 20 and staff tried to contact the registered owner by phone. She said the dog had been previously impounded and the subject of several complaints.

A letter was sent to Ms Stewart on August 20 when the dog was determined not suitable for re-homing, and eight days after it was impounded the dog was put down.

''While it is unfortunate that the dog was euthanised one day before the owner made contact with DAS, and we are very sorry for the owner's loss, staff followed procedure,'' the spokeswoman said.

Domestic Animal Services will review a number of processes for future cases, echoing calls from Ms Stewart for other family pets not to be put down.

The spokeswoman said staff will consider posting photographs of all impounded dogs on the TAMS website and will attempt to contact registered owners by phone on the afternoon before putting down impounded dogs.

Staff will also consider ''contacting the RSPCA and checking the TAMS website to see whether a lost report has been lodged that matches the impounded dog,'' she said.

Ms Stewart warned other dog owners that their pets could face the same fate as Dexter.

''It shouldn't have happened like this. We are just so upset,'' she said.

Read more: http://www.canberratimes.com.au/act-news/family-upset-after-shelter-puts-down-pet-20130901-2sz25.html#ixzz2dgUqFuGI

[kelpiecuddles]

All seems a bit weird to me, dog went missing on the 19th and they checked with the pound then but what happened in the seven days after that, surely if you had lost a beloved pet you'd be calling the pound every day or better yet going down and looking yourself in case it had turned up there?

I'm sad for the dog but if the family made no further effort after that first day to track down their pet i'm not sure what they expected to happen.

[Diva]

It is yet another lesson that you need to go look in pounds yourself if you are looking for a missing dog. Don't rely on staff to tell you if they are there, look.

[Little Gifts]

I was thinking the same. I was beside myself with worry after Stussy was missing for only an hour. I would not be trusting the pound or RSPCA to do the matching up - I would be there myself looking, every single day. And I'm not saying this because I don't think the pound or RSPCA are capable of doing this, I just think it is not their job to ensure you get your dog back - it is yours!

[trinabean]

What struck me as odd was that although in the beginning of the article it states that the dog was a Ridgeback, the owners had registered it as a Bull Mastiff. So if the owners were ringing the pound and asking about a RR, their dog may well have been there, but was listed as a Bull Mastiff. It's hard enough for people to recognise breeds accurately. I wouldn't be relying on council staff to figure out the anomaly. It would be much wiser to register the dog as the breed it is/ most looks like.

Edited September 2, 2013 by trinabean

[kelpiecuddles]

The whole thing is weird

The dog had previously been the subject of a number of complaints and yet all the neighbours loved it???

If it went missing on the 19th and was put down 'ten days after it went missing' then it was put down on the 29th, which means she recieved the letter on the 28th but didn't attempt to collect the dog or contact the shelter until the 30th??

[Staffyluv]

All seems a bit weird to me, dog went missing on the 19th and they checked with the pound then but what happened in the seven days after that, surely if you had lost a beloved pet you'd be calling the pound every day or better yet going down and looking yourself in case it had turned up there?

I'm sad for the dog but if the family made no further effort after that first day to track down their pet i'm not sure what they expected to happen.

My sons girlfriend was really upset last week due to her beloved yellow lab getting out (trades left the gate open) and he was picked up by the pound (DAS).

She called them and also emailed them a photo of her boy and they told her he wasn't there.

She went out there, two days later, after I told her to go and check and he was there - from the first day he went missing.

She was told, there were no yellow labs there at all when she called both days to see if any had been bought in.

He is chipped and apparently his chip wasn't scanning - funny as when she took him to the vet to get him checked over, after his ordeal, his chip scanned just fine.

Mistakes happen - when dealing with lots of strays each week, sadly sometimes these things just happen (and the poor dog is the one to pay the price)..

Edited September 2, 2013 by Staffyluv

[kelpiecuddles]

Yes but if the maths is correct then the owners had atleast 24 hours notification that the dog was in the pound before he was put to sleep, surely enough time to at the very least make a phone call and say they were coming but needed to borrow a car/get someone to look after the kids/get the impound fee out of the bank.

I don't discount the possibility that the news report isn't accurate but if it is then even if the pound stuffed up here the owners had the opportunity to rescue their pet and chose not to for whatever reason.

[quintessence]

Canberra Times - 2 September 2013

<SNIP>

Domestic Animal Services will review a number of processes for future cases, echoing calls from Ms Stewart for other family pets not to be put down.

The spokeswoman said staff will consider posting photographs of all impounded dogs on the TAMS website and will attempt to contact registered owners by phone on the afternoon before putting down impounded dogs.

Staff will also consider ''contacting the RSPCA and checking the TAMS website to see whether a lost report has been lodged that matches the impounded dog,'' she said.

<SNIP>

I agree that this is a truly dreadful thing to happen to anyone but the fault is not really with the pound staff

Part of the problem is that many Canberrans do not even know there is a pound, since it calls itself Domestic Animal Services (DAS), a sub branch of the delightfully named Territory ad Municipal services (TAMS), so people might not think to even look for the website, let alone search it

Maybe the RSPCA could help to make sure that people contacting them re lost dogs also contact the pound.

To be fair, the pound staff do already post details and photos of all dogs impounded so that even if the breed description and colour were wrongly listed you would recognise your own dog if it was there and as others have already said go and look at them.

This is where the dogs in DAS pound list is :

DAS pound dogs

[kelpiecuddles]

Maybe quintessence but if i put 'canberra pound' in to a yahoo search the first two results that pop up are for TAMS/DAS, the second of which is titled 'lost, found, impounded and wanted dogs'. Not really that hard to find.

[jemappelle]

It is yet another lesson that you need to go look in pounds yourself if you are looking for a missing dog. Don't rely on staff to tell you if they are there, look.

Yes! Mistakes happen, it's part of life. I can't remember how many times I've heard of a dog being listed on a pound's website as one sex and when rescue have picked it up it's the other!

[Loving my Oldies]

It is yet another lesson that you need to go look in pounds yourself if you are looking for a missing dog. Don't rely on staff to tell you if they are there, look.

The point many DOLers and seasoned dog owners tend to forget is that members of the general public know absolutely zero about pounds and/or what to do if their dog gets out or is lost. It is all very well to say that they should find out, but in most cases it would be a matter of not knowing that they don't know.

Yes! Mistakes happen, it's part of life. I can't remember how many times I've heard of a dog being listed on a pound's website as one sex and when rescue have picked it up it's the other!

Of course mistakes happen and it is a part of life. But let's not forget pound people are dealing with lives. They should be checking and rechecking and then checking again. They should explain to people who come in and ask whether or not a particular sort of dog is there that the people need to go around and look for themselves and to keep coming back and repeating the exercise.

As for your comment about the sex of dogs in pounds - ain't that the truth. I have one here as verification. Was sent to the pound to collect a little male, next day on closure observation (hadn't disturbed the dog because she was totally traumatised) we found we had a little female.

Also picked up a little dog who was supposed to have dreadful mammary tumours. They were hernias.

Many pounds and their staff do an amazing job. Many pounds and their staff don't.

[Diva]

This dog had been impounded before according to the article, I doubt its owners were ignorant of where the pound was or how the system worked.

[keetamouse]

Was the dog's pic on the pound website? also was the dog temp tested?

The poor dog's living conditions weren't the best either.......

[Burkes]

Yep, agree. I've had fosters that have been escapers and between driving the streets for hours I was checking DAS website and RSPCA every hour or so to see if anything had come in. Also drove out in the middle of the night to check the drop off cages.

People need to take more responsibility for their pets. Eight days is well long enough to work out where the pound is - especially if you have been there before.

[mita]

It is yet another lesson that you need to go look in pounds yourself if you are looking for a missing dog. Don't rely on staff to tell you if they are there, look.

Yes, lady down the road lost her p/b Staffy. She phoned all the pounds, even those just outside our north-western suburbs. She thought it'd make it easy that her dog was a purebred, totally true to the Staffy type. Before microchipping was mandatory here.

No luck for days. Then a pound 1/2 hour drive north, phoned her to say a p/b Staffy had been brought in.

She drove like a lunatic up to this pound. It was close to closing time.

They led her to the cage.... & a very, very Staffy CROSS.... looked out at her. So disappointed ... she made her way back to the car. Glanced at one kennel on her way out. There was her Staffy looking out at her. He was labelled Staffy CROSS.

So the p/b was labelled a cross & the cross labelled a p/b.

Then there was another Brisbane man we know, whose male German Shepherd went missing. Another p/b & very big to miss!

He kept phoning the pound who said only German Shepherd that'd come in was a female. But he was getting desperate... & he went to the pound. Yes, it was his GSD that'd somehow got labelled a female on the paperwork that the office staff referred to.

Edited September 2, 2013 by mita

[tdierikx]

I remember years ago - before the internet existed - when my dog was let out by the mower man...

I rang the local council, and the girl who answered the phone had no idea where the pound was... for 3 days (I called every day)!!!

I finally got jack of the stupid council girl and rang a few of the local vet clinics and found out that one of them was the pound.

I called the pound/clinic and they swore blind that they didn't have any dogs matching the description I gave them - large/medium sized scruffy black and white mutt (she looked like a scruffy BC by the way) - so I asked my neighbour to drive me down there just to check... and my dog WAS there! She also had a broken leg that they tried to browbeat me into expensive surgery for... *sigh*... I have no doubt that she would have been euthed as soon as her time was up (and it was only a few days back then) due to the broken leg that really didn't need surgery to heal just fine. I'm positive that when I called, the person answering the phone didn't even look at what was in the pens...

From that day on, I've always made it one of the first things I do when moving to a new place - find out the closest vet clinic, and where the area pound is located... luckily I have not needed to collect any of my own dogs from a pound since that first time... *grin*

Where I currently live I am in the corner of one council area which borders 2 others. Depending on whether my dog is found IN my street or on one of the streets at either end, they could be impounded at one of 3 different pounds - Canterbury (around the corner from where I live), Renbury (at Austral), or the Sydney Dogs and Cats Home (at Carlton)... how's that for confusing? My lovely neighbour Katdogs made up some flyers with the pound info a while back and letterboxed around the area so that everyone here knows where to look if they lose a pet... how cool is she?

T.

Edited September 2, 2013 by tdierikx

[Loving my Oldies]

This dog had been impounded before according to the article, I doubt its owners were ignorant of where the pound was or how the system worked.

I was speaking generally, Diva, and not in reference to this particular case :)

[pepe001]

I can't believe how long some people wait before looking for their dog. I found an elderly small dog last Xmas who was in quite a bad state. I rang everyone I needed to and also the local pound. I convinced them to let me keep the little bloke at home as he was too old for the pound and they agreed. He was taken to a vet and they told me to wait until his time was up and he was mine to address his possible problems. A week later the owner looks at the website and reclaim the dog from me. He was old and had missed out on vital drugs for the 10 days he was missing (plus his vet was not local and they didn't think of ringing local vets). I told them he would have been destroyed in that time at the pound - they didn't seem to care. Dumb dumb dumb.

[j]

What struck me as odd was that although in the beginning of the article it states that the dog was a Ridgeback, the owners had registered it as a Bull Mastiff. So if the owners were ringing the pound and asking about a RR, their dog may well have been there, but was listed as a Bull Mastiff. It's hard enough for people to recognise breeds accurately. I wouldn't be relying on council staff to figure out the anomaly. It would be much wiser to register the dog as the breed it is/ most looks like.

This strikes me as odd too. The ridge on a ridgeback is a pretty dominant feature. It's a pretty hard thing to confuse, so if a dog is scanned and the microchip records say it is a mastiff, and it doesn't have a ridge (I don't know whether this dog did or not, just going on the article) why on earth would the pound staff think it was a ridgeback? Looking at the photo in the paper (face only) it certainly doesn't look like a ridgeback.

It all sounds to me like someone trying to make DAS look bad so they can tell their kids that "those nasty people killed your dog" rather than "Sorry, I was slack and didn't do anything in time and he paid with his life"