A heartbroken couple returned from holiday to find their pet of five years had been re-homed Sep 9 2009 Wallasey News A HEARTBROKEN couple returned from holiday to find their pet of five years had been re-homed.
Shane
and Janet de Lacy left their dog Scamp in the care of their daughter
Sian, 35, who lives in Wallasey, when they travelled to Sicily for two
weeks.
On August 21, five days into the de Lacy’s
holiday, Scamp, a Lhasa Apso worth £1,000, went missing from
Sian’s home and was later recovered by the council’s kennel
service.
Despite reporting the dog missing, Sian was not contacted to say Scamp had been found.
When
Shane and Janet – from Monmouth, South Wales – arrived home
to find their beloved pet was gone, they called the council’s
kennel’s service and discovered Scamp had been renamed Sweetie
and re-homed by the council.
She had not been wearing a collar
when she was found and her microchip tag traced back to an animal
sanctuary where she was originally purchased by the de Lacys.
However the sanctuary had no details of Scamp’s owners.
Shane said: “My wife and I were numb with shock when we arrived at our daughter’s to find the dog was not there.
“We felt a little bit better when we found out Scamp was safe, but we really want her back.
“When
the council explained that they had found and re-homed the dog within
seven days, the legal amount of time, my wife wrote a letter to the new
owners, pleading with them to return her.
“At this
point, after two days of owning Scamp, they said they were not willing
to part with the dog under any circumstances.
“We feel heartbroken as Scamp has been part of our family for five years.
“I just feel that Janet and I have a moral right on our side.
“We are just so upset about the whole situation.
“Scamp is usually scratching away every morning when we wake up and now the house feels empty.
“This is something that’s not really going to go away.”
A
council spokesperson said: “Obviously we understand the upset and
frustration of the original owners of this pet, but we have acted in
good faith and in accordance with procedural and legislative
requirements around stray dogs.
“Indeed we have appealed
to the new owners on the de Lacys’ behalf to ask if they would
consider returning the dog. “However, they state the dog has
settled into their household and family and have refused, which is
their right.”
the problem with this dog pound in Birkenhead is,that if a dog is microchipped it makes no differance this this pound whatsover! if you don't check with them when you've lost your dog then they assume you dont care i know a few people that have losed dogs in the same way as the above lady. and a couple of them even checked with the pound too but still never got the dogs back it's totally wrong. microchips are done for the purpose of locating your dog if lost and owners SHOULD be informed if the dog wardens pick them up, but they dont. they said to my friend "why should we inform you when we pick your dog up, you should know if you have lost your dog or not and if you dont check with us first then its your fault if it gets re-homed or not" ..it makes me wonder how many of these microchipped dogs have been PTS. i've just looked on their web site and 5 of the dogs up for re-homing are microchipped???????????? f**king madness