stray ethics question

[dooktruck]

so this week i was getting ready to go to work and my wife called me and told me there was a stray dog running around at the end of our street and i should go catch her. so i asked is she a pit bull and she said maybe. so i go down to the end of the street and she is a little cow patch pit bull puppy. she is trying to play with a mans dog that he is walking on leash. i asked the man if the cow patch was his and he said no...and that he had seen her out about a week ago....roaming. we were standing on a busy street and i didn't want the cow patch to get run over so i walked her home with me. when i got home i looked her over and she has some skin problems that i think is probably mange. she also had some cuts on her...that didn't seem like bites. she seems to be around a year old...a little timid at first when i would approach her that makes me think she wasn't treated very nice. also she is not house broken and has never seen her reflection. it seems as if she was not very well taken care of.

we live in a sort of rough neighborhood and there are a lot of stray pit bulls roaming. i looked today and will continue to look to see if anyone has put up signs.
but i dont want to put up found signs because i feel like if the owner really wants the dog back they will be looking for her. also i don't want to put her back in a bad situation. also she is not spayed...and i think perhaps these people could be backyard breeders.

the tough part. even though my wife told me to catch the dog. now she is sort of regretting me getting her because we just lost our pit bull who we had for 6 years...a few months ago. so she is still sad. i understand not being ready for a new dog but i'm not wiling to take this dog to the shelter. but i am willing to foster her. my wife is also worried she will get attached to cow patch and that if we were to keep her that later on down the old owners might see her and try to get her back.

what do you guys think?

[adoptapitbull]

OK, personally, this is what I would do. Others may or may not agree.

If a week passes by and you see no "lost" ads, no craigslist posts, no lost pit reports at the shelter, nothing, then I'd assume that this dog was dumped. I would call AC and ask the rights of the previous owner if they ever see her and decide they want her back. Get her seen by a vet and document her condition now, so that any law enforcement would see that the previous owner did not take care of her. Truly I don't see that happening, but cover your butt just in case. You know her fate if she goes to the shelter, so the best thing you can do now is foster. Hook up with a rescue group and ask them to courtesy post her on their site. Take it one day at a time and please let us know what happens...and maybe post some pics for us

[suziriot]

First, good for you for taking little Cow Patch in. That nickname is just too cute, by the way! And good for you for being concerned about doing the ethical thing as well. Like adoptapitbull said, call AC and hypothetically ask about local laws concerning previous "owners" - although I agree with you that she was probably dumped.

I understand your wife's concerns - it can be very hard to move on after losing a beloved companion. You can feel like a disloyal traitor by accepting a new dog into your life. The important thing is that you and your wife were there when this little girl needed you to save her. Whether she becomes part of your family or if you decide to help her find another forever home, the most important thing is that you've opened your hearts enough to give her a chance at health and happiness.

And yes, please post pictures of Cow Patch!

[michele5611]

Thanks for taking her in and giving her a chance. I agree that she is either a stray and or dumped and most likely no one will come looking. I would def. call animal control and see what the "waiting" period is before the dog can legally be considered yours. i too understand your wife's hesitation but sometimes when one door closes another one opens...while you will never forget your beloved dog that was lost maybe this dog will help heal the wound.

Please do post pics and be sure to keep us posted!!

[SunraysPitBulls]

PICTURES! Black and white is my favorite!!!!


After 7 days, I agree get her vetted, and you can even get her microchipped. All this would document you are caring for her. If no one claims a dog in 7 days, the dog is available and considered abandoned.

THEN at that point you decide if it was meant to be, or if she needs a new home

[dooktruck]

thanks for the advice everyone. we took her to the vet today and she has generalized demodectic mange. we're treating her for the mange. she is negative for heart worms or any other worms. they checked her for a microchip and she doesn't have one. the vet thinks she's about 6 months old. shes 42 pounds.

i haven't seen any craigslist postings or signs around the neighborhood...nothing on the shelter website. the vet said she thought basically we should consider her ours since we got her shots and records and there was no identification or chip for her. and her previous owners weren't taking care of her...and if she was us she wouldn't send her back to those people.

we're teaching her to sit and place. she did ok on the leash at the vet.

we're gonna foster her and we'll see where it goes from there. we'll see about adopting her out after she finishes her treatment and gets spayed.

[dooktruck]

pics

[suziriot]

What a doll! She is gorgeous. HUGE kudos to you and your wife for saving this sweetie and taking such good care of her. Please keep us posted on her progress.

[sugar]

OMG that underbite! She looks like an absolute doll! Major good karma and thanks to you for helping her out when she most needed it. I understand your wife's position (it can make you feel like a traitor, but you can also see it this way, maybe your last dog sent you this one. It has happened to a member on our boards.)
The best thing you can do for your wife is reassure her that helping another pitbull is probably what your last dog would have wanted, and that you are just fostering her (it will help ease her feelings of guilt so she doesn't feel like she is being rushed to take on a new dog permanently).
Oh, and I agree with the others, Cow Patch is the most awesome name!

[michele5611]

She is beautiful!!! Thanks again for taking her in and getting her on the road to recovery!!

[adoptapitbull]

And for the mange, if you need Ivermectin as part of the treatment, don't buy it at the vet. You can buy it on Jeffers for about $30 and have enough to last you a year. It's the Ivomec 1% injectable for Swine. Should be about $30 for 50ml. She'll probably get .4ml a day through the length of her mange treatment. Ask your vet about it. It worked wonders for my Snorts when he had demodex.

[emilys]

according to the dermatologists at the CSU Vet School, the current standard for demodex treatment is Advantage Multi (aka Advocate); ;it's the only topical that's been tested effective for mites. That use is still "off label" in the US (but not in other countries) but vets are allowed to use it.

[DiamondTiger]

She's very pretty.

Have you filed a found report with your local shelter(s)? Asking about the ethical thing to do, many locals require that the finder of an animal also take proper measures to find the dogs owner before assuming ownership. Supposing the owners have reported her lost with shelters, sometimes they don't always take in pictures and because so many calls come in for lost animals, shelter employees rely a lot on their found reports to reunite lost pets with their families. They could sue you if they find her with you and they can prove you made no attempts to find her owner, by way of filing reports, placing ads, hanging fliers, etc.

And assuming that she's been lost for a few weeks before you picked her up, they may have taken care of her and she just went through some rough stuff.

One shelter I worked in, we had a cocker come in whose coat was matted beyond anything most people could dream. I took him to a groomer who was kind enough to donate services and in the end the matted hair weighed a whopping 13+ lbs! Everyone assumed the dog had been dumped and left to his own devices... as he was found by a pastor sitting on the church steps one morning. As it turns out tho, he actually belonged to an elderly couple who loved the dog VERY much and were just not able to keep up with his daily grooming as they wanted to and as the dog needed. They were more than over joyed to get their precious boy back and they were in tears over the new hair cut he had received. They didn't have a lot of money, but they made a sizable (for them) donation to the shelter for the care we had given their dog.

You could also put an ad in your local paper with a very vague description. "Found (date) pit bull puppy. Please call (number) with detailed description if you think this might be your dog." Keep record of any and all attempts you make to find the owner of the dog, that way if they ever DO see her with you and want to raise a stink, you have proof that you put forth the effort to reunite her with her owners.

[adoptapitbull]

While it's possible that she's just lost, I'd have to argue with any owner that the mange she has didn't happen overnight. You could definitely use that as proof that the previous owner did not properly care for her. If they had no record of a vet visit or meds to take care of it, I'd be pretty sure anyone would realize that the dog does not belong back in their hands.

[DiamondTiger]

Quite possibly, but it's still better to cya if you can. Honestly, looking at her pics and seeing the date this thread was started... she really doesn't look all that bad. I've seen MUCH worse in the shelter system and we've treated dogs with what I could only call "chronic" issues that are really hard to get through. Heck, if you go back and look at the pictures of a dog that New Hope took in over a year ago called Mickey Mouth, you'd think he was neglected and abused the whole time he was in the program. It took FOREVER to find something that would work for his demo and skin issues and his coat looked like crap even tho everything possible was being done for him... both in working with the vet and trying "home remedies". It was a rough road for him.

All I'm saying is, it's not right for any one of us to pass judgment on another without knowing what really happened in cases like this. A dog that shy's away from you when you approach it, doesn't necessarily mean the dog was abused or mistreated... it could simply mean that the dog is afraid or possibly under socialized. Just as a dog that you find might be a little underweight... could mean that the dog has been lost for more than a day or two. It doesn't mean that the dog was neglected or starved or that there isn't someone out there looking for their beloved Fido and praying that the dog is safe and that they will be reunited.

[dooktruck]

i did file a found dog report with the shelter. so far nothing has come of it. still haven't seen any signs or craigslist posts. her mange is clearing up with the ivermectin...less than a week and it already looks a lot better. my wife asked the vet if she thought perhaps the previous owner was treating her mange already and she just got out of the yard. in the vets opinion the dog was not being treated for mange or being very well taken care of at all. she said she had seen worse cases of mange but it takes a while for it to get as bad as it did.

she has sort of learned place pretty well...at feeding time anyway. and walks on the leash well too. i forgot how much work a puppy is.

[loverocksalot]

Oh she is my kinda dog I love cow patches. When we are away from home and missing our Rocky when we passed cows out in pasture reminds us of our poochie.
Anyway glad you filed a report with shelter cause It is what I would hope someone would do if they found my dog. The shelter would be first place I would report if my dog were missing. And from what I understand from shelter which is also AC in my area if I found a dog I could keep it at my home and if no one called in about the shelter after 7 days I would be given the option to adopt.