What should I have done with this dog?

[DogDiscoveryDrama]

I've name changed for this as it's quite an outing situation.

Earlier today I was taking my kids out to meet friends at the park.

On the way, I spotted an unattended dog eating peanuts (presumably from a purloined bird feeder) at the side of the road by our local church. It's on a bend where there isn't a clear divide between pavement and road, and there was nobody in sight. I pulled over and left my kids in the car while I went back to see if there was anyone looking after the dog.

There was nobody around and no obvious houses nearby that it could have come from, so I rang the number on its collar but there was no answer so I left a message saying I'd take it to the local vet.

I am allergic to both dogs (itchy and asthmatic) and peanuts (anaphylaxis), but I grabbed the dog, stuck it in the car and took it to the vets a couple of minutes away.

When I got there, I explained the situation, including that I'm allergic to everything about the dog at this point. They scanned for a chip and the details matched the number on the collar but it was registered to an address about an hour's drive away.

They tried calling and got no answer, then asked if they could take my details to give to the owner if they called. I explained that I couldn't take the dog, explained again about my allergies and asked if there was anything else we do.

The vet came out and they both kept saying that they couldn't take the dog - they would be closing for the weekend at six - and I should take it to the local animal shelter, about a 20 minute drive away.

I apologised and explained again that I couldn't take the dog in my car, that I'm allergic to the dog inside and out, I'm not really great with dogs as a result, and I'm not comfortable driving around with a loose dog in my car with my children (boot full of stuff, so would have had to be in the front with me). I said if they couldn't take it I would have to turn it loose as it was not safe for me to take it.

The vet then said I was blackmailing them and after a bit more back and forth where I said I was happy to help, but couldn't take the dog, and they accused me of blackmail again. Then the assistant begrudgingly said she'd take the dog and they basically pushed me out of the door.

I was so taken aback at their whole attitude and their insistence that I was being unreasonable that it made me question whether there was another viable alternative that I should have considered.

For the record, I obviously think I did the right thing at the time, but I was planning to email them to apologise that I couldn't do more because I do appreciate that it was an unenviable situation for them too. I just think that they were better placed to deal with it than I was and that as animal care professionals they could have been a bit more helpful or willing to compromise, but I will hold up my hands if there is an alternative that I didn't think of as I really didn't want to create a problem for them.

@Jojolapin

Actually, taking a lost or stray dog to the vets is a reasonable course of action. Normally, they are only to happy to try and get in touch with the owner or pass the animal along to a shelter.

[quote Littlemeadow123]@Jojolapin

Actually, taking a lost or stray dog to the vets is a reasonable course of action. Normally, they are only to happy to try and get in touch with the owner or pass the animal along to a shelter.[/quote]
It’s reasonable to take it to a vets but they don’t have to accept it.

You have done a great deed, OP, and maybe have prevented a road accident caused by an unattended dog running into traffic.

It is unnecessary to accuse a member of the public of blackmail. What if you had experienced a medical emergency when driving onwards to the shelter ? You could have been the unwitting source of an accident had you suffered an allergic reaction at the wheel. A dog without proper containment within your car is, in itself, hazardous. You did what you had to for a short journey, but were prevented by common sense from doing a further journey.

Serious professionals, used to saving life, need to be able to think within a hierarchy of needs and to realise that them dealing with the emergency and making dog warden phone calls was going to be the best solution.

As long as events like this are not a daily occurrence, some extra help from them is to be expected. It might have been possible to bill the owners for a service - once they are located, or the owners might volunteer payment.

I wouldn't expect a non doggy person to know about the dog warden. I think you did the right thing and they were BU.

What the vet surgery could do is to instate a collecting box in order to gather funds for such emergencies: 'Please help our team care for stray animals brought to us.' sort of plea.

Anything is better than demonstrating to a member of the community that you don't give a t* about the safety of one of your canine friends, nor the elderly person, loving little child or whatever, who might hear their pet has been run over, because somebody the vet doesn't know from Adam has been entrusted to either care for, or, perhaps abandon to the pavement and providence an evidently hungry and by now thirsty dog.

They were jerks. There is no reason they couldn’t have called the dog warden.

You did the right thing
I brought in a stray cat to a vets and was blackmailed if I didn't pay for his neturing he would be given to someone else. I had become attached to him.

my vets happily take in any found animals. Dogs get kept in their kennels until they can be handed off to the dog warden

I'm a vet. I would probably have taken that dog in and I certainly wouldn't have called you a blackmailer but let me be devil's advocate here.
I recently took the weekend off to attend a colleague's wedding in a town 90 min away. All staff were attending (this is relevant. Remember that if the vet took in that dog, that someone would have had to come in to the practice at least five times over the weekend to care for the dog and feed it at the practice's expense, thereby being tied to work all weekend long.)
I arranged out of hours cover with a neighbouring practice 15 min away and tied up all loose ends, or so I thought!
I then came in to work on Saturday morning to see one client with an emergency. I was therefore going to be late for the wedding but hey, vets are not real people. (It turned out absolutely not to be an emergency.)
As I was leaving, a member of the public arrived with a dog she had picked up wandering possibly walking home on a quiet nearby football field. She threw a huge tantrum when I suggested she bring it home with her, or back to where she found it, to the local shelter or failing all of that, to the neighbouring vet.
So I put the dog in my car and drove it to the shelter. Meanwhile DH was trying to get three small children wedding-ready.
While I was trying to get someone to open the gate at the shelter, the dog shat on my front seat and trampled it all over the car.
We missed the wedding. The kids cried all afternoon due to missing their nap. The car has been scrubbed and professionally cleaned. It still smells.
(DH asked if people kidnap loitering teenagers and foist them on the local GP. I laughed.)

I think this was one of those things. The vets were probably sick of people abandoning their dogs with them, (it happens depressingly often, especially at the moment) and thought you were telling a tall tale because that's what arseholes who abandon their dogs do. Try not to let it bother you too much x

I think it's fair enough that they tried to make clear it wasn't their responsibility, but the fact is it wasn't yours either. Expecting someone who has no experience of dogs, so no food, probably nowhere safe to keep it, children in the house etc, to take it versus a vet practice which will, however inconvenient, be able to look after it safely is ridiculous. I suspect they know the dog warden would be slower to collect from them precisely because they know the dog is safe, but it seems odd they didn't even recommend that you could phone them. I know to call the dog warden, but I think a lot of non-doggy people probably assume it's not a real thing these days!

they shouldn’t be housing a stray (and therefore possible unvaccinated/ill dog) with patient dogs this makes zero sense. Should vets only be keeping healthy animals overnight? Surely by its very nature the majority of animals housed in a vet practice will be ill in some way. They should have practices and procedures to minimise contact and chance of infection already.

What the vet surgery could do is to instate a collecting box in order to gather funds for such emergencies: 'Please help our team care for stray animals brought to us. It is written in the Environmental Protection Act very clearly that the government fund Local Councils to deal with stray animals. No need to charity.

@OnceUponAPotato I picked up a stray, looked ok, bit skinny but nothing glaringly obvious. Housed it in our stray kennel block with 4 other strays. Came down the next morning, dead. Two other strays then died within 72 hours. Parvo.

We’ve had a stray in and then within 4 days it’s infected the other 3 in the block with kennel cough.

Put those dogs in with dogs at the vets already undergoing treatments for other illnesses? Asking for trouble.

YABU. They’re a business, not a shelter. You wouldn’t take the dog to the pet shop, would you?

You should have googled the local dog warden or shelter rather than just going to the nearest convenient place.

I'm a locum vet so work in a variety of clinics.

All will check for a microchip and try to contact the owner if the dog is a client.

Some will happily accept 'walk in' stray dogs, keep them in a kennel with food/water and ask the dog warden to come.

Some won't accept any strays as they either don't have the space, staff or time. This is especially true in the evening when everyone is going home and the warden likely wouldn't be able to come until the next day.

Tricky situation OP & you did a good deed but were unlucky the vet clinic you brought him to weren't better placed to help; just bad luck.

A neighbour told me that if a stray cat is taken to any vet, that the RSPCA will undertake to pay for its medical treatment. I wonder if this is true everywhere in UK.

@Diverseopinions RSPCA will pay £200 (I think, might be less) for treatment for an injured stray cat.

I think it would be fair if vets were to be recompensed for their time - when they take in a stray dog.

Personally, I think the dog warden service ought to operate more reliably. If it is the designated organisation, then it should have cover at all times. OP has described how her experience relates to a situation which could have led to a road traffic accident had the dog wandered or run into the road. She had to do something. Help was urgently needed.

Thanks for the information ArcherDog. It's a very good service and a good use of subscription money.

Unfortunately, this is the situation we are left with when police stopped being responsible for strays, and the LA became responsible.

They farmed out dog warden services to the cheapest bidder, who are as a result, understaffed for the areas tehy cover and damn hard to get hold of if you are a member of the public.

So vets get the brunt of it, and they can be left holding onto a dog that isn't their legal responsibility at all, that they will not be paid to care for, until the dog warden can take it or its owner appears.

A very sad state of affairs. The dog warden service needs to be supported and improved. What nice work experience could be offered to young people if there were proper facilities and adequate staffing.

The legislation says that each local council had to offer an option for stray dogs.
For example for me I collect mon-fri 9-5. Outside of these hours there is a designated drop off point (an animal shelter that has overnight security who will place the dog in a kennel)
Other councils don’t have specific dog wardens they employ companies to collect dogs.
Others just have a kennels that strays can be dropped off at 24/7.

Must be the same one then. Oh Bless.

so the moral of the story is to not take care of unattended dogs

1. I didn’t even know dog wardens still existed
2. taking in strays temporarily until they are moved to one of the local dogs’ homes is what many of the vets do here (I haven’t canvassed them so don’t know for certain that they all do), I’ve seen TV fly on the wall vets do it, and vets in other locations I’ve lived do it; it wouldn’t occur to me not to have taken it to the vet 1 minute down the road

Blackmail?? They are really rude. What if one of your dc is really scared of dogs? Or it was covered in fleas? I think you did the right thing.