Dog lover Karen Davies-O'Connell with two of her own dogs who played host to Scruffy recently. Photo / Troy Baker
Dog lover Karen Davies-O'Connell with two of her own dogs who played host to Scruffy recently. Photo / Troy Baker
It was a long and stressful evening for Scruffy the Maltese-Bichon-cross and her owners when she got herself lost recently, and could have been much worse if a kind dog lover hadn't come to the rescue.
However, that dog lover, Karen Davies-O'Connell, says she was disappointed with Whakatāne District Council's after-hours service in reconnecting Scruffy with her owners.
Scruffy followed someone home, who then put out the call on Facebook to find her owners.
When nightfall came and the owners had still not been found, Davies-O'Connell, who has four dogs of her own, offered to keep Scruffy overnight as the woman who had found her was not able to.
Seeing that Scruffy was professionally groomed, well looked after and registered, she knew someone would be searching for her.
"I know what it's like. It's the worst feeling in the world, worrying about all the things that might have happened to them."
Scruffy was not going to spend the weekend in the pound if Karen Davies-O'Connell had anything to say about it. Photo / Supplied
She rang the council's after-hours number and asked for the contact details of the person the dog was registered to.
"'No', I was told, 'this breaches the privacy act'. I had total respect for that, so I asked, if they could pass on my contact number to the dog's owners."
The after-hours operator said they were not able to do this, saying the only option was to have a dog control officer pick up the dog and take it to the pound.
Davies-O'Connell refused to do this because she had had experience of the pound when her own dogs had been lost and knew it would be very stressful for the little dog.
She asked again: "Can you please, please ring the owners. No, that's not our process," was the response.
Meanwhile, Scruffy's owners, Karlie Atkinson and Damon Oats, had also put in a call to the council to report their dog missing and were out driving around the streets searching for her.
They eventually found the Facebook post and came to collect Scruffy at about 10.30pm, after hours of searching and worry.
"I just don't think it's a good enough system," Davies-O'Connell said.
"If I had handed her over to dog control she might have spent the whole weekend at the pound, which is a horrible place. It causes unnecessary suffering for the dogs. Council could have easily passed on a message. Even to say someone had rung and your dog is safe."
Council development and environment general manager David Bewley said that would have happened if someone had rung during business hours.
"If someone reports during business hours that they have collected a dog, council staff will facilitate contact by checking that the person who found the dog consents to their details be given to the dog owner. If consent is given, staff contact the owner and provide the details for them to organise collection of their dog."
However, the council uses a third-party service outside business hours to answer calls.
"This service does not have access to the dog owner database for privacy reasons. The current process is that the after-hours service will arrange for an independent contractor to collect the lost dog from the caller. However, the contractor is encouraged to contact the animal control manager, even after hours, if an issue arises.
"Council aims to enable returning dogs to their owners and seeks to encourage those who pick up roaming dogs and are keen to return them safely to their owner. There is always opportunity to review and improve processes and systems, which will be the case in this instance," Bewley said.
