I work at a shelter. This kind of thing does happen. That is why shelters have a legal holding period. Ours is five days. During that five days, the dog must be held at the shelter, cannot be adopted. This is to give the owners time to find the dog. After that period, the dog becomes the legal property of the shelter, to with as they see fit, be it adoption or euthanasia. This law is to protect both the shelter, the dog and the owners.

My personal opinion is that if the owners of a dog are too stupid, thoughtless or apathetic to drive to the shelter at least ONCE during the five day holding period, they don't deserve to own a dog, any dog, period. If one of my dogs ever got lost, first of all, it would have it's collar and tags on!! And I live in a VERY small town in a rural area. Second, I would be at every shelter in the county every day. I would be putting up fliers, posting on the internet, everything. This dog could have just as easily been euthanized as adopted out at the end of the holding period, all because its owner didn't check the shelter for it. Sorry, I don't think people like that deserve to own a dog.

This dog is legally the old man's property now. He got it from the shelter, where it was legally the shelter's property. The former owners have no legal claim to the dog. Saying The new owner's reasoning is probably, "Well, if they really loved this dog, they would have kept it in a fenced yard, put a collar with tags on it, and made the slight effort to drive to the shelter to see if it was there." And I have to agree with that. Yes, things happen, mitigating circumstances sometimes ... but in this case it sounds like the owners simply didn't care enough or weren't bright enough to put ID on their dog, and to check the shelter. That's their loss, IMO, maybe they will learn something and take better care of the next dog they get.