Has a one been following the piper theft legal case?

[Lilah Charm]

It is not about a Yorkie but it is a pretty serious legal battle about a show dog named piper who was being babysat on a holiday weekend; escaped the fence, was picked up within short hours by animal control and identified by micro chip, then quickly turned over to a rescue against the shelters hold time protocols, the true owners attempted to retrieve her within twenty four hours of the rescue acquiring piper and they refused to return her. It has been a pretty big deal and I imagine will set some pretty notable case presidence and influence microchip security. Here is a link to an article about it if anyone is interested:

Demand for Inspection of Piper, the Sheltie, Goes Forward! | Best In Show Daily | 2015

It has been an emotionally impacting situation for me to read about personally and I would be curious how the rest of the dog world is responding- it sounds like there has been some split reception about the issue.

[anneclaire]

Maybe I am missing something but I think there should be no doubt to who Piper belongs to. That is the purpose of micro-chipping . Now if the owner was mean it would be different but it sounds like she is a lady that loves her dog and wants her back.

[yorkietalkjilly]

Hopefully Piper's legal owners get her back as soon as the jury finds for them. This situation is disgraceful! That disgusting rescue organization should have returned that poor dog to her rightful owners the moment they were fully informed of the slapdash, careless, illegal methods used by the shelter in releasing an owner's microchipped, just lost dog w/out doing due diligence to locate the owner and wait the statutory hold time in order to allow the owner a reasonable length of time to locate and reclaim their dog. The shelter received what I understand was an illegal transfer of the dog that they they then subsequently ultimately and knowingly took advantage of by keeping the dog.

As I understand it, any animal doesn't come under a municipality shelter's full legal care, custody and control rights to euthanize or sell to another party until the shelter has fulfilled their legal obligations to effort locating its current owner and holding it for a statutory period of time for the rightful owner to reclaim.

By using the disgraceful actions of the shelter to avail themselves of someone else's champion show dog, they have revealed they have no actual love or regard for dogs or feel any compunction to return poor, confused Piper back to her owners ASAP! So much for the "rescue" aspect of Central Ohio Sheltie Rescue title - it's more like Central Ohio Sheltie Thievery!

I hope this rescue organization is drummed out of the business after this and any charity monies they have received are requested back, as any monies donated certainly weren't made with the intent of prematurely selling a citizen's dog to anyone before all the proper steps were taken to hold the dog until they could reunite the dog with its owner. These people don't have the ethics to trade in innocent animals.

[DBlain]

wow, just another unbelievable example of how messed up our legal system is, since the dog was micro chipped you think the police would have the right to remove the dog from the rescue group or arrest someone if they did not give it back. If they find your stolen car seems like you have more rights, so sad and that dog has been held hostage for a year or so.

[Lisa and Pic]

Wow, what a mess. It seems like the owners should have been grateful to the rescue for taking care of their dog while it was lost and the rescue should have been thankful that the dog had owners that loved and care for him. Sad all the way around.

[dinkster]

Wow. This rescue organization seems to have put their "rights" in front of their mission of "rescuing" pets.
I had a friend whose dog ran off when she opened the back door . She called, went in person to every shelter she knew of, and she kept going back looking for her dog.
She finally was reunited with her dog. It turned out that a worker at a shelter liked the dog and had brought it home. It was only her persistence that prompted another worker who had found out about the worker who took the dog told my friend.
After that the worker turned the dog over with some excuse about how he did not know anyone was looking for her and was trying to be nice to the dog.
The whole thing put my friend through three awful weeks of despair.
The dog was over 10 years old and was a gorgeous Huskie.
Obviously even if the worker had good intentions, he did not follow the procedures. She complained, wrote a letter, and got feedback like,"well these people are volunteers, and we did rescue your dog."

[Wylie's Mom]

Originally Posted by yorkietalkjilly

Hopefully Piper's legal owners get her back as soon as the jury finds for them. This situation is disgraceful! That disgusting rescue organization should have returned that poor dog to her rightful owners the moment they were fully informed of the slapdash, careless, illegal methods used by the shelter in releasing an owner's microchipped, just lost dog w/out doing due diligence to locate the owner and wait the statutory hold time in order to allow the owner a reasonable length of time to locate and reclaim their dog. The shelter received what I understand was an illegal transfer of the dog that they they then subsequently ultimately and knowingly took advantage of by keeping the dog.

As I understand it, any animal doesn't come under a municipality shelter's full legal care, custody and control rights to euthanize or sell to another party until the shelter has fulfilled their legal obligations to effort locating its current owner and holding it for a statutory period of time for the rightful owner to reclaim.

By using the disgraceful actions of the shelter to avail themselves of someone else's champion show dog, they have revealed they have no actual love or regard for dogs or feel any compunction to return poor, confused Piper back to her owners ASAP! So much for the "rescue" aspect of Central Ohio Sheltie Rescue title - it's more like Central Ohio Sheltie Thievery!

I hope this rescue organization is drummed out of the business after this and any charity monies they have received are requested back, as any monies donated certainly weren't made with the intent of prematurely selling a citizen's dog to anyone before all the proper steps were taken to hold the dog until they could reunite the dog with its owner. These people don't have the ethics to trade in innocent animals.

I can't believe this case...I mean, HOW is it even a case when the dog so very clearly belongs to its owners, and they did nothing wrong here? Unreal! Really scary too, my gosh! If this happened to one of my babies, I would be utterly devastated having them in the care of someone else. And furious too.

[gracielove]

What kind of a "rescue" keeps a dog that has an owner! I would guess this rescue has already castrated the owner's show dog and does not want anyone to know it. Some rescues feel an animal should not be bred under any circumstances.

Don't rules and laws mean anything anymore? I can understand why this would upset the OP and any pet owner. I knew there were some disreputable "rescues" out there but this is outrageous!

[lisaly]

This case is so disheartening all along. I would think that both rescue groups and those in the show world love dogs and would have dogs' interests at heart. I don't say this with certainty, but I believe, at times, there is some conflict between the show world and rescue groups over ideologies. I don't know if any of this at play here, or perhaps the rescue group questioned how this beautiful dog was treated, whether it was living a good life. I find this case disgraceful, unlawful, heartbreaking, and it's also scary that such a thing could happen. I am broken hearted thinking of Piper and her owners. I wonder if there will be further legal ramifications, especially if they had Piper spayed, knowing she belonged to someone else who was trying to get her back.

[lisaly]

Originally Posted by gracielove

What kind of a "rescue" keeps a dog that has an owner! I would guess this rescue has already castrated the owner's show dog and does not want anyone to know it. Some rescues feel an animal should not be bred under any circumstances.

Don't rules and laws mean anything anymore? I can understand why this would upset the OP and any pet owner. I knew there were some disreputable "rescues" out there but this is outrageous!

I didn't see your post when I posted. I started writing and then had to stop to do something. I'm sorry if I repeated any of your thoughts.

[dinkster]

Why is the shelter doing this? Is it because the dog is valuable? Are they just on some kind of power trip?
I can't imagine why in the world the shelter would do this when the ownership has been established.

[Lilah Charm]

Originally Posted by lisaly

This case is so disheartening all along. I would think that both rescue groups and those in the show world love dogs and would have dogs' interests at heart. I don't say this with certainty, but I believe, at times, there is some conflict between the show world and rescue groups over ideologies. I don't know if any of this at play here, or perhaps the rescue group questioned how this beautiful dog was treated, whether it was living a good life. I find this case disgraceful, unlawful, heartbreaking, and it's also scary that such a thing could happen. I am broken hearted thinking of Piper and her owners. I wonder if there will be further legal ramifications, especially if they had Piper spayed, knowing she belonged to someone else who was trying to get her back.

All of the above statements reflect my feelings on the issue- it seems ludicrous that improper and illegal handling of animal services warrants the rescue group any rights. I am surprised there is a split on the issue at all really-it seems so clear cut to me- but unfortunately I believe it is the case as lisaly stated that so often rescue groups and show breeders are split due to popularized misconceptions and it is such a shame because ideally they should be working closely together. What would be more disgusting even than piper being altered would be if she has been bred for the personal gain of the woman who refuses to return her. I will be very interested what her condition is when she is evaluated by a veterinarian.

[KazzyK810]

This is absolutely disgusting and infuriating!

You have more recourse in getting a stolen car returned to you than you do a living, thinking, feeling, being? How is this allowed to go on so long?

Such restraint by the owner. I know I couldn't do it...couldn't wait it out. I'd go get my dog my any means necessary.

[DBlain]

can you imagine the legal bills both parties are paying, what a waste of the rescue groups funds. I still can't understand why the police were not involved, this group basically has stolen goods. If you buy a stolen car or piece of equipment the police will seize it from you and you could be arrested for receipt of stolen property, yet they allow this to go on.

[DBlain]

what makes this even more amazing is two shelter groups messed up and went against their own policies. First the shelter and then the rescue group.

Lola has not been microchiped which I plan to do in a month when my town holds a clinic so I am not familiar with what info goes into the system. In this case even though the dog was chipped, when scanned the info was for the vet's office that was closed for the weekend. I would have thought the info on the chip would be the contact info for the owner of the pet not the vets office. I also assume the dog was not wearing a collar with an ID tag which is a shame