warrant over taking a dog from the highway

What is the name of your state? kentucky
three months ago i gave a six month old german shepherd puppy to a family with the understanding they would take good care of it and keep it in a fenced yard. no money was involved. to my surprise they don't have a fenced yard. every time i passed their house the dog was on the road. to no avail I even called the family. a week ago i picked the dog up from the highway and brought it back home. two days ago three young men showed up at my door and accussed my husband and i of stealing the dog. we refused to let it go back into the same situation and they refused to talk about the situation to make it better. they told us they were going to get a warrant and come back with the police and get their dog and we would be arrested. they were really ugly concerning this. can they get a warrant and have us arrested and get the pup back? after all they were the one who broke the oral agreement to keep the dog safe. are there any laws to protect us and the puppy? we don't want to go to jail, but we don't want the puppy to be hit by a car either.
Irene

Then get off your azzz and go BUY a house with a fenced in yard.

Well.... could be a situation where they might carry through with their threats and attempt to get a warrant (and succeed) but you won't be required to give up the shepherd after explaining the story and/or until it's heard in court, at which time you may not be required to give up the pup (or dog by now) or may be required after the case is heard. Could be a situation where this new owner is making idle threats about a warrant and simply wants the dog back. If there wasn't a written contract yet a verbal one, you could flat out tell whoever might show up at your residence that the new owner had firmly agreed to turn ownership of the dog back over to you if they could not properly contain the dog, as your stipulation required. You could also say that you had seen this dog several times roaming freely on the highway and had called the owner and that when you called, the new owner was angry and had voiced his intentions of backing out of the agreement and had additionally threatened he didn't give a d*mn if harm came to the shepherd or anyone on the highway. You can state the owner came to your house angry threatening you.

To make your case, you might want to call animal control and "get them on your side", so to speak. If there are laws in your town or state regarding free roaming pets, animal control might try to be of assistance to you in this matter. I'll send your note to a friend of mine who works animal control and cruelty cases in our state and see what she has to say about it.

Make sure the dog is up to date on rabies vaccine and is displaying the tag around his neck in the event animal control does show up regarding this case. Make sure the dog is contained safely and has all the right things (water and food). Do not let them take the dog unless they have a warrant. If they have a warrant, it would be best if you cooperate if you still have the dog. If this dog has ever been deemed a danger to anyone, cooperate fully with any authorities who might show up, and do not attempt to hide this dog.


I'll try to get back to you if my friend is home and has some advice.


hmmbrdzz

thank you for your response. maybe i can sleep better tonight knowing what to expect. i have never had a legal issue of any type and don't really know the law in kentucky concerning pets. when we moved here from louisville ky three yrs ago to this rural area, i couldn't wait to put up a five feet chain link fence and go to the animal shelter and adopt a pet. five months later dogs began coming from the woodwork. i found out people were dropping their dog off at my house because they knew i would take them in. i now have 4 outside dogs that i care for, this includes the pup in question. i have found several dogs a really good home and keep in touch with their new owners to make sure they are doing okay. two thirds of the animals in this area roam free. at any given time you can find one or two laying on the road dead. theres a lot of hunting dogs that run loose and are so skinny you can count their bones, i put food & water out for them. a lot of dogs are shot for crossing someone property. our animal shelter are over crowded and i really don't think i can make a difference here but i can't standby and do nothing. someone has to take responsibility. once again thank you for your help and suggestions. i really really appreciate it.
Irene

Good Gracious sounds just like this household! 4 dogs, 5 cats, all "used-to-be-orphans"! Lots of fenced in back yard, though! Our town is considering trying to adopt a new pet leash and pet limit law. I won't be affected though if it is passed, as I will be grandfathered in, so to speak, plus I've helped this town for decades with the animal control problems and assist down at the station with the holding pens -- providing fresh water and food and all that good stuff so the police don't have to!! I've helped our county SPCA with placement (adoption)!! Mine are all very safely kept. I just cannot stand to see an animal suffering. Have always been that way; always will be! Towns are getting tough with respect to pets because so many people are so flipping irresponsible. They don't spay/ neuter, the problem with overpop gets tremendous, and people have wound up getting seriously harmed from irresponsible pet owners. It's a people problem! Off my soap box on that one! I don't know what the hunters are going to do around here if this law is passed. Lots of hunters are in opposition to it, and I can't blame them. We've got some pretty good hunters around here. The ones I know are pretty "dog responsible". But there's those, too, who don't go get their dogs, and they wind up all over the highways -- dead. Oh well. Can't save 'em all. But daggone if we can't try!

Anyhow.... marty hasn't responded to my e-mail to her. Now you talk about a "place". This woman has been a wildlife rehabber for about 25 years. She has about 30 acres with funding from the commission to "do her thing". Very very interesting. Her heart is about as big as this world, and she's one tough cookie. Her place was (or still is) a dumping ground for those 4-leggeds who aren't wanted. In addition to all the 'regular cats and dogs and horses, she constantly has birds of prey, deer, fox, raccoons, (some pet raccoons, too -- licensed to keep them that way) beavers (one licensed as pet named BB), a few hybrid wolves (licensed to keep on premises due to inability to rehab or place), cats, some exotic cats, otters. It's like a mansion for wildlife. The Hilton.

Keep up your kindness. If you can, learn what your state laws are regards these dogs so you'll be in a better position in the event someone pushes it. GOod luck to you! GIve 'em a safe haven. THey need it. You're the one!!

hmmbrdzz

I respectfully disagree with hmmbrdzz about if you would be allowed to keep the dog.
Your post says you gave the people the dog. Right then it becomes their property. If you had a contract stating if they do this or that then you have the right to take the dog back that would be a different story. I don't think that is the case. As a result if they should go and get a warrant then the dog will be taken because it is stolen property. In NC stealing any kind of dog is a felony. After the subject is arrested we would call the victims and tell them to come and get their dog. We would not leave it there.
I really can't see the DA pushing to hard for any kind of conviction due to the circumstances but they will probably only become aware of the case after an arrest.
I would advise give the dog to animal control or return it. Legally the dog is "evidence" and evidence is not left with the person accused of stealing it.
That is my opinion.

It's no one's dog when it's a roaming dog and doesn't display tags. That's county ordinance in our state (which is not KY). My animal control friend (who was just down at the station when she just called me) advised me to tell you (the dog owner) not to worry -- to put tags on the dog, that it's highly unlikely that anyone is going to get a warrant, that you can explain the situation in the event someone possibly does show up with a warrant (which she said she couldn't imagine anyone showing up), that you are not considered having stolen anything, that you had instructed these people to fence the dog in, they didn't, you saw the dog roaming several times, called the owners, they wouldn't comply, you picked the dog up off the highway when it was roaming, it was not displaying tags, you are now feeding it and caring for the animal, it is in your possession, and she said don't give the dog to anyone.

But this is not KY. She said if you wanted to call animal control and get the state laws and explain what happened, you could, but she said "tell her to just forget about it and keep the dog if she wants it but to make sure it's tagged and not roaming".



hmmbrdzz

hmmbrdzz I again respectfully disagree with the statement of if it is not tagged and is roaming then it is nobody's dog. In that county what would happen if a dog slipped its collar and while roaming around attacked and killed a person? Is the person who owns the collar that is left behind not in anyway liable for that dog and its actions because there was not a collar and the dog was roaming freely?

I don't know what would happen in KY in a death situation, but this is what happened here in 1996 with respect to dogs owned in the county. A co-worker of mine who lived in the country (county) and who owned a rott, a shepherd, and a mutt, returned to her home from work one day to find a gnawed body part (identified as a hand) on her front porch. All three dogs were out of their pen and mingling around in the yard. She called authorities. Authorities found her neighbor, a 67 year old, small framed black man who -- as he did every morning -- was walking down his dirt road to his home from work when these three dogs attacked and killed him. The dogs were seized, impounded, tooth bite analysis on the body confirmed the rott was the primary attacker. Cause of death: dog attack. All three dogs were put to death, the owner never faced a single charge. Not one. I tried to go to archives of News and Observer to find this article, but I can't find it. Of course, that was in 1996, but it was a highly publicized event at that time around here, and no laws existed that allowed the dog owner to be charged with anything. I'm not sure what would happen today. Charging dog owners for injury to people is not an easy thing to do. Recent case here that you may have heard about (New Bern) -- a pit (one who had been deemed vicious already by authorities) that had been ordered by the courts to be contained inside the house attacked the owner's 2 yr old child inside the house and almost killed it. The dog was then seized and put to death. The owners of this pit bull are not expected to face any charges. The child is now undergoing extensive surgery via Shriners assistance. The city is revising it's ordinance so that dogs deemed vicious can be seized at that time and put to death.

In the circumstance presented here, we don't have a dead person or even an injured person. We have a roaming dog, probably county, in a place that sounds like ordinances are lax (i.e. the poster describes roaming dogs and dumped dogs on her property). The poster is caring for and placing some dogs in homes. She observed a dog she had given to someone who wasn't caring for it as they had verbally agreed to care for it. She therefore got the dog off the highway. According to Marty, who's 25 years experience with these issues I trust wholeheartedly (and who read the poster's situation), I would have to give the same advice I have already given. It may be wrong.

To answer your question about liability to dog owners who let their dogs roam and are not tagged and if this dog harms someone -- I really don't know what happens. I could ask Marty!
She would know, no doubt. But right now she's on her way to South Carolina to take two rehabbed otters to a sanctuary for eventual placement back into their natural habitat!

hmmbrdzz

Well, Mike, she just called -- 1/2 way to her destination, and so I asked her about the two dogs issues going on over here -- the one here, and the one regarding the pit who wasn't muzzled. In respect to the question you posed here, she said that dog owners can do jail time -- serious jail time -- if their roaming dogs hurt someone and the dog (if it's not collared) can be linked to the owner. She said some states and cities are quickly passing laws that are banning certain breeds of dogs altogether from townships (mostly pits and rotts).

hmmbrdzz