EDITORIAL: Lessons to be learned from lost dog conflict

Posted 10/4/11

The situation, while quite unusual, poses some lessons for the community.

Fourteen-year-old “Gizmo,” who belonged to Pat Miller of Powell and her family, went missing on Aug. 21. A few days later, an area resident found the lost dog and …

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EDITORIAL: Lessons to be learned from lost dog conflict

Posted

Any family who has lost a pet knows the heartache that follows as you search and hope for its safe return home.

In a sad and aggravating situation that unfolded recently, that heartache deepened when a lost dog was found — but not returned.

The situation, while quite unusual, poses some lessons for the community.

Fourteen-year-old “Gizmo,” who belonged to Pat Miller of Powell and her family, went missing on Aug. 21. A few days later, an area resident found the lost dog and brought her to the City of Powell/Moyer Animal Shelter, where she stayed for seven days. On the eighth day, Gizmo was adopted to a new home.

More than a week after she was adopted, the Powell Tribune printed her picture as a dog available at the shelter, not knowing she had already gone to a new home.

That photo prompted Pat Miller to contact the shelter, but the joy that came from finding her dog soon dissipated when she learned the new owner refused to return Gizmo.

Shelter workers attempted to get the dog back to the Miller family, offering the new owner his money back and the opportunity to choose another dog of his choice. Unfortunately, he declined.

While the adoptive owners went about getting a new pet in all the right ways, their refusal to return an old dog to its longtime home is both puzzling and frustrating.

The animal shelter followed all of its normal procedures in this situation. They held the dog for seven days, as per policy, and publicly advertised her multiple times. For residents who are missing a pet, it’s important to look through those “Lost and Found” ads.

The Tribune only publishes photos of animals on our Digest page as we have space available — which means many animals may go through the shelter, but their photos never end up on Page 6. However, dog and cat photos often are featured in the Tribune’s Plus section and on the website www.petfinder.com.

Speaking of pictures, if your pet is missing, it’s important to have a photograph to show the animal shelter so they know exactly what your animal looks like. Due to some misunderstandings, shelter workers didn’t realize the found dog actually was Gizmo.

The no-kill shelter houses an average of eight to 10 dogs and 25 or so cats, and volunteers and employees at the shelter work tirelessly to care for the animals and ensure many missing pets are returned home.

“We want nothing more than for animals to be returned to their owners,” said Elfriede Milburn, a longtime volunteer at the shelter and president of Caring for Powell Animals.

The sad story of Gizmo came about after a series of unfortunate events. We hope the new owner does the right thing by returning the old dog to her original home — and that a situation like this isn’t repeated in the future.

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