What to do if you find a lost dog….

 

As a lifelong dog person, I am terribly distressed by all the pictures of lost and found dogs we see on Facebook, the heartbreaking pleas of families who miss their dog and are offering rewards. So I decided to investigate what you should do if you find a stray or lost dog. I went to neighbor, Robin Fulton, because I know she’s active in re-homing lost dogs. The result was an article in our neighborhood newsletter, condensed here.

What you should not do: offer the dog free to anyone who promises it a good home. Here’s my version of Robin’s advice:

If you can do so safely, take the dog to a veterinary office to have it scanned for a microchip—you may even have a neighbor who has a scanner. Many dog lovers do. Next, post on Nextdoor.com and Pawboost.com. Notices are posted in the immediate area and shared widely (and also on local neighborhood pages, of course). In ideal situations, a microchip will lead you immediately to the owner, but it doesn’t always happen.

Don’t necessarily post the dog on Facebook at all. You’re liable to get several people who say the dog belongs to them—it may or may not. If it’s a highly prized breed, some people may claim a dog intending to re-sell it (think of Lady Gaga’s recent experience). If someone does claim the dog, you probably aren’t the best judge of whether or not the person is the true owner, but there are several things you can check,

Watch the dog’s reaction to the individual—is it overjoyed, cautious, scared, hesitant? Ask for family photos, leave a tell-tale physical trait out of your description that only an owner would know, ask for vet records, and check inside a collar, too, just in case a name and phone number are there.

It is against the law to re-home a dog immediately. All found dogs must be put on stray-hold for 72 or 96 hours (depends on who you talk to). For your own legal protection, even if you want to hold the dog on your property, you should probably involve a recognized agency.

The best call to make is to the animal control unit in your city. Oh, you say, they’ll just euthanize it, and it’s such a cute young dog, and—oh, no, I couldn’t do that. Wrong! Most city shelters are making great progress towards minimizing the number of animals that are put down. Our Fort Worth unit now has a 97% live-release rate, a marked improvement over just a few years ago. 

Most important, your local animal control is where owners will look first. You can register a dog for its stray-hold, and you’ll still be able to take it home with you. You can also work with recognized rescue groups such as Saving Hope or Good Neighbors Animal Rescue. They will search for owners during the stray-hold period. However, rescue groups have a scarcity of fosters so if a finder can foster, it makes it more likely that a rescue group will step in to sponsor the animal’s medical needs and thoroughly vet a potential adopter. 

When I started looking into the problem of lost and/or stolen dogs, I was convinced that dogfighting rings went door to door looking or bait dogs. A talk with experts at the Fort Worth Animal Care and Control Center convinced me I was pretty much needlessly frightened. Dogs are stolen, either for resale or because someone wanted that dog, and one or two people may set two dogs to fighting, but organized dogfights, with arenas and gambling, are rare in this area. The last big one broken up was in Arlington in 2018. Animal control officers can only issue misdemeanor citations—felony warrants must come from law enforcement. And dogfighting is a felony.

What can you do to protect your dog? Make sure it’s microchipped; secure the area where it exercises; and keep an eye on the dog.

A version of this blog first appeared in the Poobah, newsletter of the Berkeley Place Association, April 2021, yours truly, editor.