[foot-loose]

Last night, on their way home from work, my sister and her friends found a dog running about the middle of the road, obviously distressed and with a collar on. They did the honourable thing and took the dog to the local police station (about midnight, maybe later) where they then spent about half an hour filling out forms.

She says that she was just getting back to the car after handing the dog into the police station. There isn't a car park at the station, so she had parked in the public one across the road. As she was about to leave the car park, she saw the same dog right beside the station, minus the tag.

Now, this would seem to me that the police took the dog in, couldnt be bothered looking after it, took the collar off and put it out the back door of the station. This meant that the dog was now running about in a totally different part of town minus any ID so its in a worse situation than before!

Her and her friends picked the dog back up and took it back to the area they found it in the first place.

She is 100% sure it was the same animal. The only thing I can think of is that when the police were taking it out to a kennel or something, its given them the slip, however the sis says that the dog was quite calm and wasn't trying to get away.

When I was told all this, I was a tad angry - some young folk do the right thing and the police just chuck it back in their face?! What would happen if I called in to ask what happened to the dog? Surely they would have to have some sort of paper trail? Im fully aware that the police may have more important things to be doing in the suburbs of Glasgow on a Friday night, however if they couldn't deal with the dog, surely they would have been better saying that!


On a lighter note, Mum saw me getting annoyed and tried to say that it might have been a mistake and the dog had just run away again from the police. I pointed out that, what with it being a police station, escape shouldn't have been so easy...

[Zoot]

Phone up and ask if a dog had been handed in. See what they say.

[foot-loose]

I have every intention of doing this on Monday.

[Andy B]

This is why the law states that all dogs should have a tag on their collar with the owners name and address on. If it was the same animal then the cops are doing a pretty shitty thing but at the same time it is the responsibility of the owner to ensure that they get their dog back as soon as possible. Ours even say "I am microchipped" on the back as well just in case.

Kinda curious though what did they do with the dog once they'd taken it back to the area they found it in? You didn't say but I'm assuming they didn't just turf it out of the car and say byeeeeeee.

[MK Chris]

What else could you do though? You obviously can't take it home (well, some could, but I'm assuming in this case none of them could) and while the area the dog was found in may not be an indication of where it's come from, it's a better guess than anything else, so you'd have to say the owner has slightly more chance of finding the dog.

But yeah, pretty shit thing for the coppers to do and quite irresponsible for the owner not to have contact details on the collar (which I'm assuming it didn't.)

[foot-loose]

Yea, she took it back to the area and just papped it out the car. I didn't really agree with that, but at least it was hopefully closer to home.

The collar had no information on it.

[MK Chris]

What else could she have done though? Other than take it home and put posters up saying she's found a dog - and that's no guarantee of getting results straight away, if at all, so you'd be stuck with it for at least a little while and what with Abby (how are you spelling that again?) you'd probably be stuck for space.. assuming the two dogs got on in the first place.

[foot-loose]

Leaving it out on the loose is not really an option in my books, I would have brought it back here and left it n the garden till today, then papped it off to the cat and dog home. I imagine that would be the first place someone would look for a dog (after the police station, who dont seem to give a shit).

[MK Chris]

Fair point. Goddamn it, why am I so fickle that I'll change my opinion when anyone gives a half decent argument?

[foot-loose]

Grow some balls for * sake.

[MK Chris]

But if you have a good point that makes me change my opinion, what can I do about that? I can't think of anything to counter it so the natural thing is to change my opinion.

[Sunny So Cal]

Leaving it out on the loose is not really an option in my books, I would have brought it back here and left it n the garden till today, then papped it off to the cat and dog home. I imagine that would be the first place someone would look for a dog (after the police station, who dont seem to give a shit).

It's what I would have done, too, AFTER I marched back into the police station to see if they still had the one I just dropped off. If they didn't, I'd be well pissed. I'd demand the missing tag and then I'd have taken it home.

[Andy B]

Um look after the dog a bit more then in the morning take the dog to a vet where it can be scanned fir a microchip which may have the owners details on.

[S4B]

Leaving it out on the loose is not really an option in my books, I would have brought it back here and left it n the garden till today, then papped it off to the cat and dog home. I imagine that would be the first place someone would look for a dog (after the police station, who dont seem to give a shit).

It's what I would have done, too, AFTER I marched back into the police station to see if they still had the one I just dropped off. If they didn't, I'd be well pissed. I'd demand the missing tag and then I'd have taken it home.

Seconded Sunny. I'd also have demanded the name and number of the git who let it out again. Presumably your sister has a police report or receipt for the dog Foots she should make a formal complaint.

[foot-loose]

You are forgetting that we are talking about a 21 yr old lassie who has never had to deal with the police. It's not in her nature to go back into the station and shout at the person behind the desk (who apparently had a tatoo of a heart with the word 'mum' underneath it on his arm).

I'll be having a chat with them tomorrow methinks.

[Yudster]

Why would anyone have had to shout? If you have the confidence to take one dog into the station, why not "another"? Dumping the dog back out with no collar was probably worse than not picking it up in the first place - although of course, a dilemma like that in the middle of the night doesn't stand much chance of being perfectly resolved by anyone, and I feel for your poor sister.

Good luck tomorrow foots, let us know what happens.

[foot-loose]

Sorry for not updating this sooner.

I phoned the police station during the week and, after going round in a few circles, eventually spoke with the custody officer who apparently deals with such things. I asked what had happened to the dog and he said, with no prompting from me, that the dog had managed to escape on the way to the kennels.

He said the reason the collar was taken off was because the kennels are a distance away from the main office of the station and they keep the collars at the desk so if the owner comes in, they can show the collars rather than going to see the dogs.

I also asked why, if the dog hadn't been trying to run away from anyone else, why would it decide to bolt from the police officer? He said that he had been in the situation himself where the dog is fine until it gets closer to the kennels, and the other dogs, where it can obviously hear and smell them. At that point the dog can get excited. I can kinda see where he is coming from.

I also spoke with a friend of my mums who is some high flying police dude in Edinburgh. Initially, he reacted the same as us and got a bit angry, but the more he thought about it, the more he thought there was no way someone would take the risk of letting the dog loose again deliberatly - the stations are covered in CCTV and it would be caught on film.

So to end the story, I can't really complain that they are covering up what happened, I can only assume it was the accident they tell me it was. The custody guy told me that no dogs matching the same discription had been handed in again so we can only assume that the thing made it home (or got flattened by a lorry). The only thing that was done wrong was that my sis was meant to have been taken to the kennels and shown where the dog was gonna be kept. For one reason or another, that wasn't done.

[S4B]

I was thinking about this last night Foots, thanks for the update, I intend to believe that it found its way home though rather than being flattened by a lorry.

[Yudster]

I am going to believe that it went home and is now in a cosy fleecy basket with a new collar (with its address on it) and a nice juicy bone as a treat after his adventure. The alternative does not do justice either to your sister's compassion or your crusade for truth!

[foot-loose]

I think if it had got flattened, one of us would have seen it.