# Missing Goldens in Maine given to Rescue



## penparson (Sep 19, 2010)

Here's an article from today's Bangor (Maine) Daily News. A case where two goldens got loose and were picked up by an animal control officer who doesn't choose to go the extra mile outside of her job description. The dogs were placed with Yankee Golden Retriever Rescue and went to new homes. This is heartbreaking, and underlines the importance of microchipping your dogs. 

http:// http://bangordailynews.com/2012/04/10/news/hancock/franklin-familys-dogs-picked-up-by-animal-officer-placed-with-new-owners/


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## goldensrbest (Dec 20, 2007)

I just went to the bangor news,and read this, this is so wrong, not at all right,they do not give those people back their dogs, i can't beleive , animal control,had them for such a short time, before turning them over.


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## MicheleKC87 (Feb 3, 2011)

Makes me sick because it's happened to me. I know how it feels. I feel so bad for the owners.


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## CAROLINA MOM (May 12, 2009)

This is a perfect example of why it's _*very important*_ to Micro Chip your dog(s) in case they were ever to get lost or stolen, but more importantly to be able to prove ownership of your dog.


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## goldensrbest (Dec 20, 2007)

They had pictures,of the dogs,and yes they should had been micro chipped, but this was wrong of yankee,to do this ,not everyone micro chips.


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## MercyMom (Dec 19, 2011)

The link doesn't work.


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## CAROLINA MOM (May 12, 2009)

MercyMom said:


> The link doesn't work.


It didn't for me either, I google it and found the article.

Try this one........

Maine news, sports, politics and obituaries — Bangor Daily News — BDN Maine


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## MercyMom (Dec 19, 2011)

goldensrbest said:


> They had pictures,of the dogs,and yes they should had been micro chipped, but this was wrong of yankee,to do this ,not everyone micro chips.


My breeder is actually opposed to microchipping.


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## CAROLINA MOM (May 12, 2009)

MercyMom said:


> My breeder is actually opposed to microchipping.


 
Why is that? Curious, as many breeders do chip, most of the Rescue Groups do also. It's safe, painless, does not hurt the dog.


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## cubbysan (Mar 13, 2007)

The sad part is that Yankee did not do anything wrong. 

The dog catcher is mostly to blame here. She couldn't even take the time to call the 10 golden retriever owners in her town or ask the other dog catcher if he knew the dogs or knew if anybody was missing them.


Most golden owners are aware of other owners in there neighborhood. If somebody came to me saying that they had found a golden that wasn't mine, I could rattle off at least 6 homes that I remember seeing goldens in the yards with in a mile from my house.


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## cubbysan (Mar 13, 2007)

CAROLINA MOM said:


> Why is that? Curious, as many breeders do chip, most of the Rescue Groups do also. It's safe, painless, does not hurt the dog.


I think at one point there was some question about the safety of microchipping. I know I was kind of nervous about making the decision to microchip because there were some questions about radiation from the chip, etc.


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## MicheleKC87 (Feb 3, 2011)

"The Warrens said they think their best hope for getting the dogs back is if the new owner reads about their plight and contacts them."

This is exactly why I posted my story of Lucy on this forum, but unfortunately I was harassed and my threads were closed. New owner likely never heard my story.

I hope that this family has better luck with getting their story out and can get their dogs back.


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## Laurie (Sep 20, 2009)

cubbysan said:


> Most golden owners are aware of other owners in there neighborhood. If somebody came to me saying that they had found a golden that wasn't mine, I could rattle off at least 6 homes that I remember seeing goldens in the yards with in a mile from my house.


 
Same here!! I always say that I know where every Golden in our City lives but I really don't. However, I do know where many of the Goldens live in our neighbourhood and surrounding neighbourhoods. 

One day last summer a couple that we are familiar with had a Golden wonder into their yard. They put the dog in their truck and wound up at our place thinking it might have been one of ours. Fortunately it wasn't but we did locate the owner who only lived a couple of blocks away (kids left the gate open).

My heart goes out to the family......I would be devastated if I were in their shoes.


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## penparson (Sep 19, 2010)

We had a golden (without identification) wander into the yard at our summer house a few years ago. We're right on the main road so we put him in the house with Reuben. We kept him until we found the owner. Funny thing is that MOST people in small villages in Maine are very attentive to wandering dogs and will do their best to find the owners. What the Franklin dog catcher did is just plain WRONG - I hope she's been let go.


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## CAROLINA MOM (May 12, 2009)

cubbysan said:


> The sad part is that Yankee did not do anything wrong.
> 
> The dog catcher is mostly to blame here. She couldn't even take the time to call the 10 golden retriever owners in her town or ask the other dog catcher if he knew the dogs or knew if anybody was missing them.
> 
> ...


I use to help one of the GR Rescue Groups with Intake for a couple of years. 

We often took in dogs from shelters that were either picked up as strays or owner surrenders. We dealt with several different counties and each county had varying hold times they required for owners to claim their dog. 
Some counties had a hold time of 72 hours, some 7 days, one even 10 days for the owner to claim it. Most of the shelters we worked with would scan the dogs to see if it was Micro Chipped, others did not have the Scanners available. Sometimes a chip was found, but the owners had not registered their contact information.

When the Group I helped was contacted about a Stray that had been found, first we asked the person to take it to be scanned to see if it was chipped. Then we asked them to contact the local AC to let them know they had found a dog, and asked them to hold the dog for the required time so an owner could be located. We also asked them to place found ads in the local paper, on Craigslist, Petfinder. com, contact area Vets, put up found posters, etc. In other words, we asked them to make every effort possible to find the dog's owner before we would commit to taking it into Rescue. 

If no one claimed the dog within the required hold time, then the group I was with would take ownership of the dog. 

*NO Rescue Group knowingly wants to take in a dog that belongs to someone, it's not right, ethical, let alone legal. Every attempt to find it's owner is made before doing so. *

In some states such as mine, if you have a dog that belongs to another person, since animals are considered personal property in my state, you can be charged will stolen property.

Fortunately both my dogs are chipped, I always try to put myself in a person's situation. If my dogs were ever lost, I hope that someone would be willing to make every effort to find me before giving them to someone or releasing them to a Rescue Group.


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## cubbysan (Mar 13, 2007)

My mother adopted this beautiful probably Maine **** a few years back, he has the most unusual facial markings. She loves this cat. About six months later, she is a store and notices a LOST CAT sign, with a picture of her cat. She called me right away to tell me. She called the shelter she got her cat from, and asked them to pull up his records and see where he had been found ( they list the neighborhood ) - it was the same neighborhood. She calls the number on the sign, ready to give up the cat to his original owners, only to find out the cat they are missing is a female and hers was a male.

I think as painful as it would be, most people would return the dogs to their rightful owner.

In that town of Franklin, it is a little over 1000 people. It would not have been too hard to find the rightful owners.

This stuff really scares me, because a lot of dogs go missing when the family is on vacation. Does not give the family much time to get back home and start searching.


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## CAROLINA MOM (May 12, 2009)

You're right about dogs going missing while someone is on Vacation-another reason to have your Dog Chipped with your Cell phone number, alternate emergency contact number and person. Hopefully the family is not out of the country at the time, but if you have an alternate emergency contact number and person, then someone else would be avialable to pick them up. 

I was suppose to pull a GR for one of the Rescues last year-the day before I was to pull it, the owner claimed him. The owner was out of town or on vacation, had someone dog sitting, the dog got loose somehow. No idea why the person who was dog sitting didn't contact the shelter or go pick the dog up. 

I'm really glad the owner was found.


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## cubbysan (Mar 13, 2007)

CAROLINA MOM said:


> You're right about dogs going missing while someone is on Vacation-another reason to have your Dog Chipped with your Cell phone number, alternate emergency contact number and person. Hopefully the family is not out of the country at the time, but if you have an alternate emergency contact number and person, then someone else would be avialable to pick them up.
> 
> I was suppose to pull a GR for one of the Rescues last year-the day before I was to pull it, the owner claimed him. The owner was out of town or on vacation, had someone dog sitting, the dog got loose somehow. No idea why the person who was dog sitting didn't contact the shelter or go pick the dog up.
> 
> I'm really glad the owner was found.


I think it is education. I don't think people really know what to do if your dog goes missing. In the olden days it would be just place an ad in the paper.

Years ago I found a golden puppy, he did have tags on, so I knew his address and phone number. I stopped by the house multiple times and left messages on their phone all day long. Nobody called back. Finally I went down to the neighborhood, and knocked on some doors. The neighbor came out and said that the owners were out of state, preparing for a move and the realtor had accidentally let the dog loose!


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## Zazoo (Jul 1, 2011)

That is so sad... I'd be devastated if that happened to my babies.. I do however have them both microchipped.. I hope the family gets their babies back..


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## mylissyk (Feb 25, 2007)

MercyMom said:


> My breeder is actually opposed to microchipping.


Why? It is safe and is the most reliable identification available. I would really ask them about that. I hope you do plan to microchip Mercy.


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## Sally's Mom (Sep 20, 2010)

The two nine year old dogs, one bitch, one dog, were not neutered according to the article....


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## penparson (Sep 19, 2010)

Sadly, that seems to be quite common in that neck of the woods. I've seen a lot of unneutered/unspayed pets in the Blue Hill/Brooklin area.


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## Lucky Penny (Nov 13, 2011)

As I said in the other thread,
Saw this story, and it upsets me, for a variety of reasons. My biggest thing is I want YGRR to at least contact the new owners and explain the situation. Do for others what you would want done for you. If these were you dogs, wouldn't you want this?

Here is the link for their page on facebook:
http://www.facebook.com/#!/BringBellaAndJakeHome

Those who want to, they are asking to contact YGRR and ask them to let the new owners know of the situation.


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## CAROLINA MOM (May 12, 2009)

posted in wrong thread


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