Families in fight over adopted dog

By Jennifer Saltman - Staff Reporter

Every time Peggy Adams turns a corner or walks through her front door, she's expecting to see Teddy.

But now, thanks to a mix-up involving the SPCA Coquitlam Shelter, the Coquitlam Animal Shelter and the City of Port Coquitlam, her four-legged companion is living with a new family.

The last time Adams saw her 10-year-old cockapoo - a cocker spaniel, poodle mix - was on June 6, when she dropped the dog off at home before going to buy herself a little treat for her birthday.

"It was a warm day, too warm to have him in the van," Adams remembers, so she shooed the dog in the front door and headed for the mall, not knowing that someone had left the back door open.

Teddy wandered out the door and away from the Adams' Port Coquitlam home.

A Good Samaritan picked Teddy up on Westwood Street the same day, a few blocks from Adams's home, and dropped him off at the Coquitlam Animal Shelter.

Adams says the woman called the next day and told her son that she had dropped Teddy off at the SPCA. Adams says she called the SPCA, as well as the Coquitlam Animal Shelter and the animal shelter in Maple Ridge, but nobody had heard of her dog.

The next step was to poster the neighbourhood.

Since Teddy was licensed with the City of Port Coquitlam - and had been since January - and also had a microchip implanted in his body, Adams was confident he'd turn up.

"With that information they still adopted him out," she says.

However, on June 22, the woman who had found Teddy called again, surprised that Adams had not found her dog. It was then that Adams found out that Teddy had actually been dropped off at the Coquitlam Animal Shelter on Mariner Way, not the SPCA on Pipeline Road.

She went down the next day, only to find out that her dog had been adopted.

"I'm not sure how Teddy slipped through the cracks," Adams says, her eyes brimming with tears. "I'm still in shock."

Lisa Parkes, acting city solicitor for the City of Coquitlam, says the situation is unusual.

Parkes says that Teddy was dropped off on June 6 and held for seven days before being put up for adoption, a process that is the same with all found animals.

"During that time our staff made all efforts to try and track down the dog's owner," Parkes says.

She says staff scanned Teddy for a microchip and looked for a tattoo, but couldn't find either.

"My understanding is that this dog does have a microchip, but the microchips can migrate and not be found. They're not a perfect tool and that appears to be what happened in this case," Parkes says.

Staff also called the City of Port Coquitlam to check on the licence tag.

Brian North, the City of Port Coquitlam's manager of revenue and collections, says that when the animal shelter called, city staff couldn't find a record but told them to call the SPCA to look for one.

"I don't know what the point of the licence is now," Adams says.

North says he understands Adams's frustration, but still encourages dog owners to license their pets. However, he says, owners should buy their licences directly from City Hall to ensure that it gets entered into the city's system right away.

North says the city is still trying to figure out why it took six months for the licences and payments to make it from the SPCA to the city.

He says it's happened before.

"We're dealing with the SPCA on that matter," he says.

Despite the fact that the city didn't have payment until June 6 or a record of the licence until June 13, North says, "The fact that it has a valid tag means it has a valid licence.

"How could they give away somebody's dog?"

Parkes says the shelter's options are limited.

"If the city that issued the tag tells us that they don't have any record of the dog, there's no information relating to that tag, there's not really much more that we can do to track it down," she says, adding that the shelter has no record of Adams calling to look for her dog.

Parkes says shelter staff also called the SPCA, which had no record of issuing the dog licence or of anyone inquiring about a missing cockapoo.

So, once the one-week impound period was up, Teddy was put up for adoption.

On June 15, he had new legal owners.

Parkes says the shelter keeps electronic records of all dogs found, in case an owner comes looking, and also advertises in the Vancouver Sun and Province classified sections. Parkes says the best thing an owner can do when their dog goes missing is to look for it as soon as they can.

"We wouldn't ever adopt out a dog when we had hopes that we were going to find the owner. In this case, that simply wasn't the case. We had no information and no other sources to look [at]," Parkes says.

"They make real efforts and our staff are all animal lovers and pet owners and the number 1 priority is to reunite them with their families."

Now, Adams says the family is just trying to figure out how to get their dog back.

Parkes says the animal shelter called the adoptive family, who decided not to return the dog, even though Parkes says they would "absolutely" get the adoption fee refunded.

Adams says she and her children are devastated about losing their pet, which they adopted from the SPCA in 2001.

"He's a really sweet dog," she says. "There's no one to trip over or take over half the bed - I just miss his presence everywhere."

She says Teddy is quiet and a perfect little dog who followed her everywhere, even to the animal hospital where she works.

"It's not fair he should have another family," she says.

Adams's daughter, three-year-old Bari, drew a picture and wrote a letter about her missing companion.

"I miss Teddy," she says, burying her face into her mom's arm.

published on 06/30/2006