Return Harley Home

We had a young Great Dane go missing on 7/15, in order to try to find him we walked and posted fliers around the neighborhood, monitored the animal control website to see if the dog had been posted as available for adoption, called and visited the shelter daily and every time we visited or called the shelter we inquired about the dog, asking if any Great Danes had been turned in and the answer was always no. On 7/23 we received a call from a kind hearted woman who said she had come across one of our flyers and informed us that she had found the dog and had turned him over to the Downey Animal Shelter on 7/15. We called the shelter immediately and were told once again that no Great Danes had been turned over to them. 

We met with a supervisor at the shelter to discuss the issue in hopes that given the situation the shelter could assist in bringing the dog back to its rightful owner and once at the shelter we spoke to the Lieutenant in charge, he told us that the dog had been adopted the day before on 7/23, which clearly indicates that the dog had been at the shelter all along while we were being told he was not. He also told us that they are under no obligation to disclose what animals they are housing on any given day and to let it go because the dog was gone. We explained that we had been looking for the dog all along and that not only was he not in the kennels or listed on either the website nor the onsite board, but that the staff at the shelter had denied the dog being there at all and all he had to say was “what can I say, just let it go” . He said that the dog was not placed in the kennels because they had decided to keep him on observation away from the public eye but wouldn’t disclose why, the dog has no health or behavioral issues, so we asked again why he was being held in observation in a place where we couldn’t find him and once again, he would not disclose the reason, so I asked the obvious question, “how am I supposed to find my dog if the shelter has him in an area that I cannot access and is keeping from me the one piece of information that I need in order to find him?” and the only answer he gave was  “I have no control over what happens in the shelter”. Isn't his job as the person in charge to keep control?

This is a dog in which we have not only invested a lot of time in training and education but also one that we have had since he was born and love very much.

We have clearly brought up this situation to the supervisor at the shelter in good faith in hopes that they would see how the mishandling and concealing of the dog’s information and whereabouts led to an unnecessary adoption, but it is very clear that they are not willing to cooperate with us, my best guess is that this dog was being held for someone specifically to adopt him and that’s why he was kept away from the area where we could look for him.