Guest Post: Dog drama

I have a friend who is going through a difficult situation right now. A couple of months ago she had found a dog wondering the streets as a stray. Being the animal lover that she is, she took in the dog, took care of it, called the humane society and attempted to find the dog's owners. 30 days later she claimed the dog as her and was really a happy. Until an unfortunate event when the supposedly owners saw her walking "their" dog and called the police on her. The cop then forced her to give the dog back to them.

After all she did for that dog, there was no "thank you," no explanation as to where they have been for the past month, and no pay back for the vet fees my friend had to pay. I for one, don't think the officer was in the right to force her to give back the dog. I mean, the people didn't really have proof that it was their dog, just going by word of mouth. That's almost as bad as a child at my school claiming that a toy is theirs all because it looks like a toy they have at home. Ridiculous honestly. Tell me what you think

"So, Easter Sunday Frank & I decided to take Spock out for a walk in the local park. As we got there this family who barely spoke any English, making conversation difficult, claimed that he was their lost dog. They had a photo of a white lab puppy on their phone, but because I licensed Spock in my name, I told them that I was sorry, but he is my dog.

When we got home from our long and stressful walk we got a phone call from a sheriff asking us to meet him at the park w/Spock. We did & he forced us to give Spock to the family. He gave me two choices 1) Give him to the family, or 2) He would arrest me and take Spock by physical force and give him to the family. So I gave them the dog.

Once home Frank & I started researching what was going on, and the legality of it all. I want Spock back! We found that the officer was in the wrong. According to our research, dogs are considered property, property disputes are to be handled in small claims, and an officer should not enforce the transfer of property from one person to another unless ordered by a judge. Secondly, according to ORS 98.025 we should have been paid for the cost of care we gave to him BEFORE the property was transferred.

I did lots of research and called a few places. Talked with another sheriff from the county, who was standing by his officer saying he did everything right, so we are now waiting on a friend to get us the phone number for a civil lawyer who specializes in animal cases. We will be filing a complaint against the officer who treated us terribly and who we believe way over-stepped his bounds.

After the consultation with the lawyer, we are going to be going to the family to give them 2 options.
1) We will offer to purchase Spock from them, both for the price they paid originally, and if they can prove w/receipts they put money into vet bills for puppy-shots, we will pay that as well.
OR
2) If they are not willing to sell him to us, we are going to request that they pay us for the vet bills & food expense we put into him. That is supported by ORS 98.025 where we should be reimbursed for the care of found property. The general example I found about property, is that if you found some one's bike, and had to pay to store it, they would be required to pay you the fees you incurred while it was in your care. That is supposed to happen before they get the property back. This didn't happen in our case, but that's not the family's fault, that's the officer's.

If they totally refuse we will be taking them to court, and requesting the court demand they not only pay us for his care but for our legal fees as well.

The sheriff I spoke with on the phone told me that for Spock to have legally been ours we would have had to follow ORS 98.005. It isn't obviously stated ANYWHERE in the found-dog section of the county or shelter website that I needed to do any of that. But it states that there's basically just a few things we would have to do:
We would have had to submit in writing that we found him to the county clerk. Post an ad with description and my name, address, and the final date for some one to claim him in the newspaper 1ce a week for two weeks. If no one claimed him after 3 months from the written submission date, he would have been legally assigned as my property.

So a heads up to every one out there, just because a dog is licensed in your name, does not mean they are legally yours"

Credit: Dog Drama By Christiane