Anybody recognize this (possibly) abandoned dog?

[redcolumbine.livejournal.com]

Somerville Animal Control is seeking information on this dog. A witness observed someone tie him to a utility pole on Morrison Ave at approximately 9:30am on 6/9/12 with the chain seen in the photos. There was a matchbook with "my name is Carter" written on it attached to the chain. More pictures of the dog are available upon request. Anyone with information on this dog should please call Somerville Animal Control at 617-625-6600 ext 2190.

Why find the owner? Because Animal Control needs to have the current owner formally surrender the dog before they can send him to a rescue. Otherwise, they need to hang onto him for 10 days before he's eligible for adoption.

Comments

[ron_newman]

Damn, who would do something like this?

[greenlily.livejournal.com]

Damn, who would do something like this?

I assume it's someone who can't afford to take care of him any more and is afraid he'll be killed if they give him to a shelter. The Pets forum on Craigslist is packed with people who are trying to 'temporarily rehome' their pets because they can't afford to feed themselves any more, let alone their dog.

[ron_newman]

I guess I'm wondering what the owner's expected and preferred outcome would be from doing this. The dog will go to a shelter if he is neither claimed nor adopted.

[greenlily.livejournal.com]

I'm guessing they hoped someone would just take him home, bypassing The System altogether. That certainly seems to be what the Craigslist people are hoping for. Which, you know, only happens in movies and TV, but whatever.

[grateful1311.livejournal.com]

I guess its lucky for him that he wound up with Somerville Animal Control who do not euthanize adoptable pets ;)

[somervillesnow.livejournal.com]

Unfortunately we can't expect any better from someone who took in a dog they should have known they couldn't afford.

[grateful1311.livejournal.com]

Thank you for reposting this.

[lac.livejournal.com]

I used to volunteer for a cat shelter and while I'd like to believe that this person thought they were doing the best for their dog, I just can't. Experience has taught me differently. There are a number of shelters that have a surrender fee and most people don't want to pay it. I used to have people threaten to throw the cat in a bag and toss it in the Mystic River if we didn't take it. It filled me with rage on a fairly regular basis.

I hope they meant well, but a lot of people don't. He's such a little guy!

[intuition-ist.livejournal.com]

while i understand the necessity of such fees, they certainly don't encourage people who're having problems to surrender their pet to the shelter (as opposed to: harming it, abandoning it on the street, neglecting it, etc.).

otoh, i admire that you volunteered for the shelter. it must have been heartbreaking.

[lac.livejournal.com]

No, they don't. And most of the cats we did take, we didn't get the fee from people. We weren't going to turn a cat away if we could help it. That said, most of these places are volunteer run and the vet expenses are not donated so the surrender fee was to offset the expense of having to take the cat into the vet to have them checked out before putting them into general population. If someone surrendered their cat with all their health info and papers in order, different story.

It was heartbreaking. And I ended up leaving for 2 main reasons: 1...I had two jobs at the time and this was like a third and was too much. The second was I just couldn't take how terrible people were about their pets. It was too much after awhile.

[redcolumbine.livejournal.com]

That's why I'm glad I didn't pursue veterinary medicine. People just don't understand what pets are - not accessories, not toys, not this year's model, to be replaced when they start requiring veterinary care.