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Animal Shelter Issue

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What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? Maryland

This is a very messed up situation. If any of this confuses you please ask for clarification.

I began fostering for my local animal shelter in February of 2011. The agreement with them is summed up below:

The shelter is responsible for all vet bills, providing food, providing shots, and providing spay and neuter of all animals fostered through them.

I personally provide the food myself because the dogs do not like the brown, nutrition-less kibble that is provided and would rather starve than eat it. Most of the animals I get are spayed or neutered. However, last year in September, I get a call that there is a very depressed dog that needs to be pulled from the shelter immediately. I of course go at 8 pm to get her. She was very thin because she would not eat and was very depressed. She was not spayed. I asked repeatedly when she was going to be spayed. The response I got was that since she was so large at 135 pounds, it was hard to find a vet that will do it. I verified this by calling around myself.

I get a call in October that there was a dog that was very un-sociallized and needed a lot of attention. He was also starving himself. I get to the shelter and find that he is a male, un-neutered. The female dog I had already came out of heat so I agreed on the condition that they had him neutered. This is not as expensive as he was only 65 pounds. A month went by and he did not get neutered. I practically begged them to get it done before the female ended up pregnant.

Since the male was in such bad shape when I got him. I spent a lot of time with him. I fell in love with him and placed an application to adopt him. They did not want to clog up a spot in my foster group so they pushed my application to the side until after the next adoption event.

I came home from work one day and found the male and female stuck together in the yard. I threw cold water on them and they separated. At the next adoption event, the male was adopted out to a family that could not handle him. He ran away. I was crushed. He still has not been found.

The female was my boyfriend's baby so he went ahead and adopted her. Two weeks later, we took her in to be spayed and we found out she was pregnant. Against all advice, we decided not to terminate the pregnancy because we do not believe in abortion. Now that the puppies are 6 weeks old, we are looking for a vet that will do the spay for us.

NOW:

Two days ago I get a call from the animal shelter saying that they have a couple that has been pre approved to adopt a puppy, but they do not have any puppies. I agreed to allow the couple to foster the two female puppies that they wanted. My state allows for a judiciary case search to be done online. This is the information that the shelter uses to determine criminal history. It limits them to only our state, but it is somewhat effective.

It turns out that the couple had an extensive abusive past which is against what they shelter allows. There is no paperwork from me signing the puppies over to anyone. The shelter however, took it upon themselves to sign a foster agreement with the couple against my will. Legally they are still my puppies and I know they had no right to make that agreement, especially since the agreement between them and the people have already been violated.

I requested that they get my puppies back from the people since they are the one's who put them in the situation. I have been given the run around by 4 different people. Now they are trying to claim half of the litter of puppies since the father was a shelter dog.

Regardless, I have had no assistance with shots, food, or any other matters for these puppies from the shelter. They said I would have to sign them over to the shelter for them to be in any way financially responsible for these puppies. The shelter refused for the last 6 weeks to have any liability over the puppies since they came from an adopted dog, but now they wish to obtain half ownership. How can I get my puppies back since they refuse?
 


tranquility

Senior Member
Get an attorney. I suspect you won't be able to, legally, but the shelter may not want to fight it if it costs them too much.

No you can't do it on your own.
 
Shelter

I figured that much. They seem to have their buns covered every which way I go. They are a no kill shelter and are supported by no kill nation, yet they keep asking if they can euthanize certain fosters for their own benefit. They like to play good cop/bad cop also. I do not believe I will have anything to do with them.

Unfortunately the situation just got worse. They have adopted 2 more dogs to them and a cat. They called me asking me to cover the spay of the two puppies they got from me and the shots because they cannot afford them. The puppy shots cost $8.00 a piece and they cannot be spayed until they are 6 months old. If they cannot afford an $8 shot, how are they going to afford 2 dogs that are going to be over 100 pounds? I am so mad right now.
 

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