Can Humane Society Legally Do This?

[CindyE]

It looks as though the HS in Cass County is paid to do animal control work both for the county and for the city of Logansport. Logansport defines pretty much what I said earlier, that there needs to be evidence of cruelty or disturbance for them to impound the dog. "Disturbance" can be as simple as running loose but once the dog was contained and cared for I'm sure they had no authority to insist on taking it.

Any animal may be captured and impounded by any peace officer if such animal:
1) Is found running at large within the city.
2) Is a menace to persons or other animals.
3) Is suffering or reasonable suspected to be suffering from an infection or contagious
disease.
4) Causes serious annoyance or disturbance to persons in the neighborhood by habitual
howling, yelping, barking, meowing or any other type of loud noises or otherwise.
5) Is kept in any unsanitary manner thereby causing odors which are annoying and
disturbing to the persons in the neighborhood.
6) Is treated by the owner in a cruel or inhumane manner or be considered as an
abandoned animal.

I didn't find the ordinance for the county, but it's not likely he had the authority he exercised.

As a Humane Society, the shelter probably has a board that controls actions, hires employees, etc. My suggestion is that they need to know how this person is behaving and reel him in a bit. Your vet might even be involved or suggest who could be called to politely express your concern. If they are organized, that may be enough to change behavior in the future.
I do suggest that you tell someone with some authority because I've seen people in such position get increasingly abusive in taking animals until someone stops them or replaces them.

Rule 4 sucks. We have 1 neighbor we don't get along with (well, nobody gets along with him) who has threatened to call the law on us because one of our dogs barks a lot. It is not like the dog is out in the yard barking all day, or at night when people are sleeping. He's just a butt trying to get even because we told him off one day when we got sick of his mouth.

 

[CindyE]

Sounds like the guy who found (or stole) the dog has no intention of finding the owner. I assume you told him there is a possible match but not even taking the dog to see if it is microchipped definitely says something about his intentions.

Disagree there. He did take the dog to the vet, and has been posting on FB and other places trying to find the owner. He just didn't want the dog falling into the wrong hands, or left in a shelter. He doesn't want the dog, and it appears to be a mix, so not valuable. Just an animal lover trying to do the right thing.

 

[TB1999]

Disagree there. He did take the dog to the vet, and has been posting on FB and other places trying to find the owner.

Agreed. I didn't read the whole thread, just made my post based on the op. Hopefully the vet checked him for a microchip.

 

[CindyE]

Agreed. I didn't read the whole thread, just made my post based on the op. Hopefully the vet checked him for a microchip.

I learned more after the OP, sometimes my husband accidentally leaves out bits of pertinent info, and is difficult to talk to over the phone!

 

[CindyE]

So far nobody has claimed the little Thug. Still not sure how I feel about the whole thing. BTW, this happened out in the county, not in Logansport.

From the HS website, What to Do If You Find a Stray Pet : The Humane Society of the United States

This is exactly what we were in the process of doing, before they decided to go all "Animal Cop":

If you are able to transport the animal, take her to the nearest animal shelter. If you plan to keep the animal in the event no owner is found, notify animal control that you have the animal or that you have taken her to a veterinary hospital for treatment. You can usually place a free "found" ad in your local newspaper. Keep any identification, such as collar or tags, should any question arise later.
If you decide to take the animal home

If you decide to try to find the owner yourself, be sure to contact your local animal shelter or animal control office first. This will give you an opportunity to let the appropriate agency know that you have the animal and to provide a description to them, in case the owner contacts them. Also, have the animal scanned for a microchip at your local veterinarian or shelter; this quick ID check could help you find the owner right away.
Before bringing the animal home, make sure you can keep your resident animals separate; the found animal could be sick, fearful, or aggressive with other animals. Once you have him safely at your home, take pictures and create a “found pet” flyer to post around the area in which the animal was found. You can also post notices at veterinary hospitals and on web sites such as petfinder.com.
If you’ve tried to find the owner without success, but are unable to keep the animal long-term, you can try to re-home the animal yourself.

So now, if we decide to adopt this little guy, will I still have to pay the $60 adoption fee? I don't have a problem with that if it includes shots and/or neutering, but if not, I feel like it should be waived.

 

[daddyusmaximus]

Congress need to send obama a bill to provide amnesty for undocumented doggies.

 

[dusty88]

So far nobody has claimed the little Thug. Still not sure how I feel about the whole thing. BTW, this happened out in the county, not in Logansport.

According to what I saw, your county also pays money to the HS to take care of strays. In fact, they were most likely directly billed for this pickup if it is in Cass County and not Logansport. That is another reason to bring it to someone's attention: a private citizen was willing to provide care and help search for the owner, and they spent county money instead.

 

[NHT3]

I've experienced range Nazis and now we have pet Nazis?? What's next?? Sounds more like Barney Fife with 1 leash.


[FONT=&quot] [/FONT][FONT=&quot]NRA Life Member[/FONT][FONT=&quot]-- [/FONT][FONT=&quot]GSSF member[/FONT]
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[HoughMade]

The answer is: on the opposite side of the block next to the alley so you can cut through it to get to the bar without your wife or girlfriend seeing you parked near the bar!

Nailed it!

Meeting a client.....always meeting a client. What lawyer has never represented a client involved, somehow, in a bar fight. Seeing no hands, I move to adjourn.

 

[CindyE]

Yesterday AM I called the shelter to see about bringing the little Thug home, and was told the owner had claimed him. I later saw on FB who the owner is, so I stalked their profile to see if they seemed like decent people. It appears so. I had commented on the shelter's FB the night before, asking when he'd be available for adoption, and they answered, but evidently didn't know that he'd already gone home. At least the outcome was good.

 

[TopDog]

Yesterday AM I called the shelter to see about bringing the little Thug home, and was told the owner had claimed him. I later saw on FB who the owner is, so I stalked their profile to see if they seemed like decent people. It appears so. I had commented on the shelter's FB the night before, asking when he'd be available for adoption, and they answered, but evidently didn't know that he'd already gone home. At least the outcome was good.

Sounds like good resolution to the situation. At least the little fellow got home, long way around.

 

[david890]

If I forget where I parked my car, can the first person to claim it, keep it?

So, you forgot where you parked. The car sits for awhile, and someone calls the cops about an "abandoned" car. They have it towed. The car is sold at auction.

Wouldn't be surprised if this happens more than we think in locations with a high rate of Alzheimer's.

 

[rugertoter]

Well, if it would have been me, I would have let them come and pick the dog up. Especially if I already had three dogs to contend with.

 

[amboy49]

Many Humane Societies have become nothing more than a $$ racket.

My dog was stolen from my yard a few years back. I let him outside for roughly 10 mins, when I opened the door to let him in I got no response. I threw on my boots and found his collar on the sidewalk out front. I called the Police Dept and filed a report expecting nothing would come of it. About 3 hours later I received a call from the Humane Society, they said someone dropped him off with a note claiming he'd been rescued from an abusive owner.

Anyhow, when I went to pick him up they told me I had to pay an $80 no tags fine, as well as a $100 spay/neuter fee.
I was able to get them to back off the neutering with threat of a lawsuit for damaging my dog, but I still got stuck with the $80 fine. Welcome to Soviet Society...

maybe you should have had the dog on a chain, a leash, or in a fenced back yard ? Just say'in.

 

[Stang51d]

I didn't read all of this, but I can say that if I found a stray dog, one that I would keep, I would only turn it over to it's owners. Screw animal control, or the "humane society". I'm on my second 3 legged rescue dog and another dog (4 legs) that I found stays at the office. I found him along the road, wet, scared, skinny, covered in mange, only had hair on his back. had lived his whole short life in a kennel I guess, his nails were grown almost 180 deg curve. At first I thought he would find his way home, then after I looked him over, I figured he didn't need to find his way back to THAT home. He's looking great, healthy, got all of his hair back and happy as can be. I think he was the big winner for 2014

 

[hoosierdoc]

Our first dog I remember having (was actually our second) was taken from my dad's coworker. He had gone over there to pick something up and we were in the car. The dog was about a year old and came over to check out what was going on and the guy kicked the dog hard to get her back. My dad went over, picked up the dog, and told him we were taking the dog home with us.

Shortly thereafter we had 8 of the cutest little mutt puppies ever. One was born in the sac not breathing, my dad brought him back. Good stuff right there.

 

[dusty88]

If I forget where I parked my car, can the first person to claim it, keep it?

A dog is property if it's owned. Some dogs are abandoned and unidentifiable. Where your question is parallel, is if someone finds a dog and refuses or avoids taking advantage of any identification the dog has, or any means of identifying the owner. (tag, microchip, lost dog ads).

Theoretically, a shelter should be the place where lost dogs are found by their owner. In practice, they are busy and sometimes not filled with the most enthusiastic or organized employees. When someone loses a pet, I recommend they go to the shelter and check themselves every day (if allowed, or at least check in at the front desk). I have seen an obvious "match" sitting at the shelter with the lost dog reports and not being matched up.

In other words, a diligent good samaritan often does a better job of returning the dog to its owner.