Pounds and phone numbers

luckat

A friend of a friend lost her elderly dog a month or so ago, so she put up notices, rang the pounds again and again and gave them five different phone numbers, etc.

She had to go away to the Continent for a couple of days.

When she came back, she kept looking, but she'd more or less given up in despair. Then she woke up and there was a message on her mobile phone from the pound, to say the dog had been found. (It had been wearing a collar with an ID tag.)

She rang up and was told that this message had been sent a fortnight ago, and the dog had been put down that morning.

What I'm wondering is whether it would be possible for volunteers to go into the pounds and just go around the dogs, ringing the numbers on the collars and trying to find the owners?

The staff of the pound in question obviously didn't bother to look at the numbers the dog owner had left with them, or they would have seen that the one at the top was the mobile number on the dog's collar and tried the others.

fits

Thats awful.

Which pound was it? Some volunteers do go into some pounds, but a lot of pounds wont cooperate.

www.petsireland.invisionzone.com

luckat

I'm not sure which pound - she's in Dublin, but not in the centre city or Rathmines or anything - I assume it was the nearest Dublin pound to her.

Arcadian

luckat wrote:

.What I'm wondering is whether it would be possible for volunteers to go into the pounds and just go around the dogs, ringing the numbers on the collars and trying to find the owners?
...

This is already being done, and most of the Dublin pound dogs also have their photos online too at Petsireland.

It's a great pity the pound didn't keep better records of the owners phone numbers though.

luckat

She's heartbroken, by all accounts. This was a dog they'd had for 12 years, which had been sick for three months, under vet's care.

Jules

That is disgraceful. If the dog had a collar with an id tag and they rang and left a message they shouldn't of put the dog to sleep. They should of waited or called again. If there is a number or what ever they should give the person a chance to call back. Yes i know they said it was 2 weeks before but still...

The poor lady, thoughts are with her.

luckat

Of *course* they should. And since she'd given them five phone numbers, it would have been easy for them to collate the number on the collar with one of the five she'd given them, and if they didn't get an answer to their text, phone the other four.

Not only would it be basic decent humanity, it would also save the State money. Our taxes paid for feeding and housing a dog for a fortnight, with all the labour and heating and food costs involved, and then for destroying it by whatever method the pound uses. All that money could have been saved with a little intelligence and a phone call.

I'd really like to see questions asked in the Dail about this - is this how they're using our taxes?

The_Minister

How did she miss the call for a fortnight?
Your story seems to indicate that she noticed the message some time after she came back from holidays.


EDIT: btw Questions in the Dail? Bit of overkill don't you think?

luckat

You think a question in the Dail is overkill because this relates just to pets? Or because it relates just to the taxpayers' money? Which would you say is more important?

The text message didn't arrive for a fortnight. Never, never rely on texts to get there in time - this has often happened to me too, texts going astray and arriving days and weeks later.

The_Minister

luckat wrote:

You think a question in the Dail is overkill because this relates just to pets? Or because it relates just to the taxpayers' money? Which would you say is more important?

It's a tiny amount of taxpayers money, and tbh the fact that they kept it for two weeks is really the waste of money (if it's as old as you say, then there's a greater chance that it was abandoned, and a far lesser chance that it will be adopted. It doesn't make sense to keep it as long as they did really).
Also, because it relates to pets. Animals are cute, and its easy to get attached to them (I used to have a hamster, and I thought it was the cutest thing when it sneezed), but they are not high up on my list. Nearly all humans come first. Tbh, I would look very coldly on the TD who raised this case in the Dail.

luckat wrote:

The text message didn't arrive for a fortnight. Never, never rely on texts to get there in time - this has often happened to me too, texts going astray and arriving days and weeks later.

It used to happen to me, but never happens anymore
/hugs meteor

luckat

Interesting. Yet the laws protecting children, for instance, were first framed to protect animals, by the Galway MP 'Humanity Dick' Martin.

Still, we get the politicians we deserve; their cold values are those we vote in.