One of the biggest obstacles to lost dogs being reunited with their owners, is animals not being handed into the pound as soon as they’re found.
Worried that the pound will simply euthanase the dog, the finder holds onto the animal. Then, when they are unsuccessful in their search for the owner, they drop the dog off at the pound a few days or weeks later. By the time the dog arrives, the once frantic owner is no longer out looking. Without identification, the chances of pet and owner being reunited is almost zero.
Laws were created requiring lost pets to be impounded when found, in an effort to overcome any public resistance to handing pets into the pound. And while these seem like a good idea in theory, like many things in government, laws designed to mandate compassion becomes perverted and bureaucratised to the point where they couldn’t be less helpful;
Crazy laws mean people finding stray dogs can be fined for helping
It seems like a simple matter – a lost dog is found by a person who has no luck tracing the owner and wants to adopt it.
But as Simone Strong, of Blackwall, learnt, once the dead hand of government regulation gets in the way it’s not that easy.
Instead you are told you will be fined unless you hand the dog over so you can buy it back later.
Ms Strong found an abandoned brindle staffie-cross two weeks ago and, with a vet unable to trace the owner through its microchip, took it home.
“It was riddled with fleas and obviously underfed and although the vet found a chip they couldn’t find an address,” Ms Strong said.
“I left my details and a few days later a Gosford Council ranger left a message with one of my children saying he would be in touch soon.
“Another week went by and then he contacted me and said I had to take the dog to the pound where it would stay for two weeks before being taken to the RSPCA, when I would have the opportunity to buy it.”
Ms Strong rang the RSPCA, which said it was the owner of the dog, which had been rehoused once before, and she was welcome to keep it. But both Ms Strong and the RSPCA were then threatened with prosecution if the normal channels were not followed.
“I was told if I didn’t surrender the dog to the pound it would be taken by force.”
So after allowing the family to care, feed and become attached to the pet for near on two weeks, the council then demands the dog be impounded;
Gosford Council education and compliance manager John Parkes said the council was bound under the Companion Animals Act in its dealings with Simone Strong and the rescued dog.
“There seems to be some confusion over the onwership of this dog,” Mr Parkes said. “But the law says it must be surrendered to the council pound so we can conduct a search for the rightful owner.
“If that is unsuccessful, after 14 days it will be taken to the RSPCA, which will then become the rightful owner of the animal with the power to place it in a new home.”
Mr Parkes said the law could appear to be too bureaucratic but was in place in the interests of all pet owners. He said Ms Strong could surrender the dog after Easter without the fear of incurring a fine.
Given the importance of the first couple of days in helping people find their pets, it would be assumed that councils would be doing everything in their power to encourage people take lost dogs to the pound asap. While Ms Strong did the right thing in reporting this dog to council, their convoluted and inefficient response, only serves to discourage other animal lovers to from contacting council at all, when they find an animal. Letting her keep the dog for two weeks is completely unfair on both the dog and her family – he should have been impounded immediately, or not at all.
Hopefully the RSPCA will take the lead in ensuring Ms Strong and her family get to adopt this guy. And shame on Gosford Council for taking such an uncompassionate stance towards their communities homeless pets.
