To think only a monster would claim a reward for returning a missing pet

[OptimismvsRealism]

Surely any decent human would refuse unless absolutely desperate for food or something

Because doggies or something. Lord knows. 🙄

I'm with you here 🤑💰💴💵💶💷💳🤑

A monster is someone who victimises children. Not a person who claims a reward offered. Get some perspective.

Returning a lost pet is actually quite the ballache. I've done it multiple times, it's never straightforward. Ive never returned a pet with a reward, ive even wnded up having to rehome a dog whose owner just didnt want it. I think she just kept letting it get put hoping itd get run over tbh.

If a reward is offered then it should be claimed.

I've found a couple of lost pets over the years and while I wouldn't expect a big cash reward or anything even if offered, I have accepted a small token from their owners (bottle of wine or chocolates or something) - I don't think that's a bad thing, for a start the owner is usually really happy and grateful and it's churlish to turn down a small token, plus also it does often 'cost' something to rescue, in the case of 2 x cats I had to lure them in with tuna and trap them somewhere, then keep them until the owner could come pick up and in the case of the cockatiel (yes really!) I actually had to run around the street like a lunatic with a laundry basket (only thing I could find to trap him in) then drive him to the vets a few miles away in a hurry so not a small undertaking) - luckily all was well in the end but I don't think it's a huge thing to have accepted a small compensation!

My kids used to be obsessed with scouring the neighbourhood for lost pets that they saw on posters, partially of course they thought they were the secret seven or something (and they liked animals) but a good chunk of the motivation was the reward money! They never actually found the pets so it never came to it but I think they'd have been quite down hearted to not get the money...

Look. I'm on the absolute bones of my arse at the moment. If I happened to be offered a reward, there's no way I'd turn it down. I am not in the position to turn down money at the moment.

@maxelly - I am picturing you now - running around a leafy suburb somewhere in England with a laundry basket trying to entice a bird in to your wonderful laundry basket 😂

I promise a monster wouldn't ask for a reward, the pet would BE the reward😳

@OptimismvsRealism would you still think so if the finder was using a food bank?

My friend gladly paid a 'reward' to have her dog returned (well, tied to some railings where she could find it.) And I guess whoever claimed the reward earned it in a way, since he had shopped his mate, who stole the dog in the first place.

I suppose it was more of a bribe than a reward, but it worked. And she also understood that the finder and thief might well have been working as a team, and more than likely took someone else's dog the next week.

What if they have driven it back to you?
Would you not owe money for car cleaning?

I wouldn’t want any money now but there were times in my life when I was totally skint and unexpected money would have been welcome. I don’t think that makes me a monster! Also it depends, if I had to keep a dog overnight or drive it somewhere that’s not the same as just keeping hold of it for an hour.

Don't be ridiculous. Thinking this is an over the top reaction and that rewards are fine has f-all to do with being or mot being animal lovers.
Unless to qualify in your book you have to be an over-hyping ninny about them.

So the offer of a reward is some sort of moral test?!

How lovely for the person who has gone out of their way to return your pet that you would “think less of them” for taking a reward that you had offered. Most normal people would just be grateful.

Are you perhaps using the idea that someone could kidnap a pet hoping to return it for a reward to mean that all lost pet rewards are inherently bad?

There have been several examples in this thread of the work/risk that goes into tracking down a pet that has bolted from home, as well as the effort and time that goes into finding the owner and returning a pet.

These are vastly different scenarios and only the first is monstrous. The second is selfless and lovely and deserving of thanks/reward.

Then people shouldn't offer a reward. Someone might have spent time purposefully searching because of the reward which takes their time. That's why people offer rewards. To encourage people to do that. If you happen upon a pet that is lost then yea maybe don't take the reward (though you still could) but if you've made extra effort to try to find it why not

Ha it really was like a scene from a sitcom (a farce more like) - I was accosted midway through the rescue attempt by a short red faced angry cockney builder - who to be fair had turned the corner to see an apparently insane woman wearing a dressing gown and slippers waving a laundry basket at his van, aided and abetted by the local old codger who was waving his walking stick around enthusiastically (the bird had landed on the van roof, the old codger was trying to use the stick to waft him into the laundry basket, but obviously the builder didn't know that and couldn't really reasonably have been expected to leap to that as a reasonable explanation!). Once all became clear the builder was very helpful and fetched a step ladder so we could retrieve the cockatiel from the nearby tree which he'd then decamped to because of the shouting and waving of items around the van!

But so are vets, aren't they? And funeral directors? And emergency ambulance workers. And trauma counsellors? etc. Are they monsters too?

I literally used the desperate for food exception in the OP.

I am amazed how mean most people seem to be.

If there was no reward would you just leave the pet to die alone?

If a reward was offered, then of course they should have it. If it wasn't, I'd be forcing money into the person's hand!
A reward might make the campaign to find the animal more prominent, and someone who might otherwise have walked on by might indeed think, oh, that looks like the missing dog with a reward. Then I can pay my rent for two months!
It motivates someone not to either walk on by, keep the animal, or try and sell it or just give to a shelter. It also can encourage kidnapping of course so it's kind of chicken and egg in a lot of ways. But when your pet is missing you'd pay to have people make an effort to find them.

Depends what it was.

Yes, but if the person who found my beloved lost and distressed dog did happen to be an arsehole, then I’d sooner they were compelled, by money, to return him to me, rather than leave him lost and in danger or dying.