Was that dog dumped?
When people see a lost dog, it is very common for some people to assume the dog was dumped or abandoned. It is important that you start with the assumption the dog was not dumped, at least until you have ruled out the other possibilities. One common scenario is that people see a car pulled over near a dog, and then the car drives away. The witness puts two and two together and assumes that the person in the car dumped the dog there. What the witness may have seen is that someone pulled over to try to help the dog, but the dog wouldn’t come to them, so they drove away. Another reason someone could think a dog was dumped or abandoned would be if the dog was thin or dirty, looking like he had been on his own for a while. However, there are many reasons, other than being dumped, that a dog could be wandering on his own. He could simply be lost.
Even if it’s true that a dog was dumped, it might not be the dog’s owner that dumped the dog. It could be that the dog’s owner was evicted, and the landlord didn’t want to deal with the dog. Or perhaps someone went to the hospital or jail and couldn’t take care of the dog. It has sometimes turned out that a disgruntled family member or an upset neighbor has dumped a dog far from home out of some sort of frustration with the situation.
Seven years ago, someone contacted Useless Bay Sanctuary about a black German Shepherd that was seen wandering at Snoqualmie Pass. She didn’t belong to anyone in the area, and she was in and out of the forest, dangerously close to the freeway. I went there to try to help her. It took about ten minutes for her to go into my trap. The next day, a little puppy was born in my laundry room. Today, that puppy is my best friend, my search dog, Valentino, who has saved the lives of many lost dogs. I didn’t assume that Tino and his mother were dumped or abandoned in the mountains. The situation had some hallmarks of a dumping, being in a remote area, near a freeway exit, near the county line, where someone could pull off, dump a dog without any witnesses, and make a fast getaway. Even so, I started from the assumption that this beautiful black German Shepherd could have been someone’s lost pet, and they were frantically searching for her. I reported her to both jurisdictions, King County and Kittitas County, since she was right on the border. I put up Found Dog signs in the area. The few residents in the area shared her on social media. I posted her as found on the Facebook pages that might cover the area. No one claimed the dog or her puppy despite months of effort. Looking back, the most likely explanation for a pregnant dog to be in the wilderness by herself is that she was dumped, left there to die. One man’s trash is another man’s treasure. Tino is the center of my world, the best thing in my life. It appears that someone left his mother alone in the wilderness to die, but fortunately someone contacted Useless Bay Sanctuary to come and save her and her unborn puppy.
Raphael is my good friend, and he is trained as a cat-detection dog. He is living a wonderful life, and he is the happiest dog in the world. Two years ago, he and his three brothers were found at the gate of a forest service road, close to a freeway entrance, in the wilderness, where someone might dump some dogs without any witnesses. The four puppies were about 6 months old. Someone had put a large bag of dog food near them. The puppies stayed close to the gate, and didn’t seem to want to go anywhere else, as if they were waiting for their people to come back. What other explanation could there be for 4 puppies to be at a spot in the wilderness, miles from any home? Someone decided to go hiking with 4 puppies, and they got lost? I suppose it’s theoretically possible that the puppies belonged to a homeless person, and that person went to the hospital, but we found no signs of anything like that. Being dumped was by far the most likely explanation for them being there. Still, after we captured all 4 of the big puppies, we took them to the shelter with jurisdiction for that area. If anyone was looking for 4 lost puppies, they could have found them at the shelter. When no one claimed them, which is what we expected, Useless Bay Sanctuary took them in and found fosters, and eventually homes for all of them. Now Raphael is a cat-detection dog, and he plays with Valentino frequently. These dogs, which someone thought of as disposable, are highly valued family members and contributing members of society. All signs point to Tino’s mom and Raphael’s brothers being dumped, but we started from the assumption that they were not, and that someone was looking for them. If it turns out that a dog actually was dumped, it can’t hurt anything to start from the assumption that the dog is simply lost, and a family is looking for him.
Last week, UBS was alerted to a German Shepherd in Newcastle. He was reported to be running in the road in a woodsy stretch of Newcastle Way, near a turnout. It was the kind of place where someone might pull over, push a dog out the door, and drive off fast. Another clue suggesting he was dumped was that he kept returning to that section of the road. Of all the places he could go, to find food or water, or to try to find his people, why would he keep returning to the road where people were flying around the corner at 45 miles an hour, where he stood a good chance of being hit by a car? The most plausible explanation was that he was dumped there, and he kept returning to the point he last saw his human, hoping to get back to his family. I suppose he could have fallen out of the back of a truck, but wouldn’t someone come back and look for him, if that was the case? He had been running on that stretch of road for several days by the time volunteers got there. Volunteers put up signs and set traps. I spent several hours looking for him, and then went home. Just around sunset, we received reports that he was in the road again, near the trap, so I went back out to look for him. I parked on the side of the road where I would be able to see him if he came out of the ravine.
About 11 PM, he came out into the road. There were no cars for the moment, and he was following a trail of bits of Vienna sausage that I had placed along the shoulder of the road, hoping to lure him to the trap. Then a car came along. Of course, the car stopped when it saw him, and this diverted him from the trap. For the next hour, he ran up and down the road, in and out of traffic, almost getting hit several times. I didn’t want to drive up near him because it would probably just make him run farther. When he wandered out of sight, I drove after him to try to keep him safe, if possible, and to steer him back towards the trap. For the next hour, he went back and forth, up and down the road for a stretch of about a mile, always returning to the point where he liked to go hide in the bushes. He had attracted several cars that were following him, and I was trying to keep people away from him, explaining that I had a trap set, and that any attempt to grab or coax him would fail, probably just spooking him farther away. I was driving slow, with my hazard lights flashing, trying to get people to slow down and not hit him. Eventually, one car did hit him. The car slowed down quite a bit but did not stop in time. It hit him right in front of me as I was waving my arms, trying to stop them. He yelped and limped away. I stopped my car and got out to grab him before he could get away into the bushes. He was having trouble walking, and of course he was upset. We got him to the emergency vet, and they evaluated him. His injuries didn’t appear to be life threatening, and the next morning, he was picked up by animal control. He has been at the shelter for a week, and no one has claimed him. UBS is trying to line up a foster for him so we can pull him from the shelter and get him the treatment he needs for his injuries.
Was this sweet German Shepherd dumped? There are many signs that he was, but we never simply assumed he was. He was not neutered, and he doesn’t have a microchip. Although he is young, his teeth are worn down as though he has been chewing on rocks, or metal bars. No one has reported him missing, and no one has claimed him from the shelter. If he was dumped, he still has a chance to live a wonderful life, like Tino and Raphi are.
For years, Lost Dogs of King County has cautioned people to not assume that a stray dog was dumped. She might just be lost, or wandering close to home. Also, if she was dumped, it’s just as likely that she was dumped without the owner’s consent, and the legal owner really wants her back. When the pandemic hit, the shelters were emptied out when people wanted companion animals at home, when they couldn’t go to work or socialize. With people returning to work, the shelters are now full. Most shelters are at double their intended capacity. It appears that more people are dumping unwanted dogs, although we can’t prove it. We would still caution people not to jump to that conclusion even if the circumstances seem to point to that. You should always assume that an owner is looking for a stray dog, and give the owner a chance to reunite.
With the increase in dogs that seem like they were dumped, there seems to be a mentality among many people that it is now the Wild West, and it’s an opportunity to go grab a free dog or a cute puppy. This first come first served, finders keepers approach can have several bad consequences. The main problem is that if people go after a dog intending to get her and keep her, they can end up chasing her away from a safe area and into danger. The second problem is that this might be a lost dog with a distraught, caring owner, not an abandoned dog. Again, even if a dog seemed like she was dumped, with, let’s say, a dog bed and a bag of kibble left at the edge of a parking lot by a storm water pond, it doesn’t automatically mean that the legal owner was the one who dumped the dog there. Also, a Good Samaritan may have seen the dog hanging out there, and brought food and a bed for the dog. If you were missing your dog, you wouldn’t want the first person who finds her to assume she was abandoned, and keep her.
Your first objective should be to help the stray dog, not to acquire a free dog for yourself. Also, if you post about a dog you see, with the intention of getting help for that dog, you should be careful not to aid or encourage those people who cruise the lost pet groups looking for free dogs to grab. Before you publicly disclose the exact location of a stray dog, consider sending a group admin a message privately, so we can determine whether publicly disclosing the dog’s location might put her in danger. You can also contact Useless Bay Sanctuary about a suspected dumped dog.
Things you can do to help a lost or stray dog:
Contact the animal control agency for that city.
Contact Useless Bay Sanctuary, whose volunteers have the experience and tools to help stray dogs. https://www.facebook.com/UselessBaySanctuary/
If you want to help the dog yourself, please use Calming Signals. http://www.3retrievers.com/calming-signals.html
If you want to help the dog yourself, and other dogs in similar circumstances, please read the UBS First Responders Handbook. http://www.uselessbaysanctuary.org/first-responders-handbook.html
Stray dogs definitely need the community’s help. By following proven strategies, the stray dog can have the best chance of being reunited or finding a new loving home. Always assume a stray dog is lost, not abandoned, in order to give the dog the best chance of getting back to a loving home.
Also, please contact UBS if you can foster the injured German Shepherd from Newcastle. UselessBaySanctuary@gmail.com.