Question:
Posted on Tue, Jan. 20, 2004

Valley barking over tale of lost pet
HUNDREDS SAY NEW OWNER SHOULD GIVE UP ADOPTED DOG
By Connie Skipitares
Mercury News
If you took a dog home from the Humane Society -- and then its rightful owner turned up -- would you give it back?
Six times in the past three years at Santa Clara County's Humane Society, the adoptive owner returned the animal in just such a circumstance.
But Monday, dog lovers sent hundreds of e-mails and made dozens of phone calls to the Humane Society, the Mercury News and a local radio show in protest of the latest incident.
The new owners of Bella, a 2-year-old golden retriever, say they're keeping her. And the Humane Society insists there is nothing it can do.
``We continue to side with the law,'' said Laura Fulda of Humane Society Silicon Valley. ``You can't just say `Anything goes.' ''
When owner Niki Karanastasis showed up at the agency's Santa Clara shelter Jan. 8 -- hours after the dog's adoption was arranged -- Fulda said, officials called the new owner. But she was not interested in giving up the dog. Later, a friend of Karanastasis' appealed by phone, but to no avail. The new owner took Bella home the next day.
The Humane Society is not releasing the new owner's name because of privacy concerns but said she is from Los Gatos and has a 10-year-old daughter, who was to received Bella for her birthday.
Fulda said the agency won't call the woman again. ``Once you've made a decision, you can't keep hounding them,'' she said.
Meanwhile, on phone circuits and across cyberspace, Silicon Valley raged over the tale of a dog gone. Some said they would stop supporting the agency.
The emotional pitch resembled that after Silicon Valley's other canine tragedy -- the February 2000 death of Leo, the bichon frise thrown into traffic after a fender-bender.
``Dogs are like family to those who have them. They're like children,'' said Elyse Maltz of Pleasanton. ``If you lost your child in a store, would someone else take it and say `It's mine'? I think this is horrible. She needs to give that dog back.''
The dust-up became fodder for Monday afternoon radio. DJ Raffi Nalvarian, ``King Raffi'' of San Jose's Mix 106.5 (KEZR-FM), said Bella's story infuriated him and he urged listeners to call. More than 100 did.
``For over an hour, it was pedal to the metal over this story,'' Nalvarian said. ``People are furious. They think it's cold that this new owner would keep the dog. She should give it back.''
Some who e-mailed the Mercury News wanted to start a fund to help buy Karanastasis another dog, if she wants one, or to hire a lawyer to fight the adoption. Karanastasis says she's appreciative but doesn't want a new dog. She wants Bella.
``People have been wonderful in supporting me,'' she said. ``But I don't know if that's going to bring my Bella back. I know if I had a tag on her, it would have made all the difference.''
The agency holds dogs for five days before adoption. But dogs with ID tags are held for 10 days.
Karanastasis and friends had checked the Humane Society shelter for Bella three times between the dog's Jan. 2 disappearance and Jan. 7 but had no success.
On Jan. 8, the San Jose hairdresser found Bella in a cage there, but her joy quickly turned to sorrow when Humane Society officials said Bella had a new owner, arranged just that morning.
Monday, Fulda reiterated the Humane Society's apology and said she doesn't know why Bella wasn't seen by Karanastasis' friends before Jan. 8.
``I would hope this would be a wake-up call to ID your pets, either with a tag or a microchip, and to get them licensed,'' said Christine Benninger, president of the Humane Society Silicon Valley.
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Contact Connie Skipitares at cskipitares@mercurynews.com or (408) 920-5647.

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© 2004 Mercury News and wire service sources. All Rights Reserved.
http://www.mercurynews.com
Source
The agency holds dogs for five days before adoption. But dogs with ID tags are held for 10 days.
I know policies are not the same in every shelter but PLEASE put ID on your pets!


Answer:
wow!!! I think that I would probably (putting myself in the owners shoes) want the dog back.. especially since she had checked the humane society to see if the dog was there.... wonder why they didnt tell her the dog was there?!?!?!


Answer:
The woman is suing the humane society.
Pam, they held her dog for 5 days and adopted it out on the 6th day, she found her dog on the 6th day.
Posted on Wed, Jan. 21, 2004

S.J. family gets lawyer to help win dog back
ATTORNEY WANTS SHELTER, NEW OWNERS BEFORE JUDGE
By Connie Skipitares
Mercury News
The battle for Bella could get even uglier.
The heart-wrenching tale of the golden retriever lost to its owner looks to be turning to the courts.
A lawyer representing the original owner said Tuesday he plans to haul the Humane Society and the family who adopted Bella before a judge to get the dog back.
Christopher Schumb, a high-profile San Jose attorney representing owner Niki Karanastasis, said he'll first file for a temporary restraining order Thursday to return Bella to his client.
Bella was adopted by a Los Gatos family Jan. 8, just hours before Karanastasis discovered her pet at the Humane Society's kennels -- and one day after the dog became eligible for adoption.
``I don't know what kind of person would keep someone else's dog,'' said Karanastasis, a San Jose hairdresser who sobbed as reporters asked her questions at an afternoon news conference at Schumb's office. ``I couldn't keep a dog that belongs to someone else. To me, it's like she stole my dog.''
Karanastasis has taught Bella commands in her native Greek and considers the dog one of her children, she said. Bella's mother and two litter-mates were at the gathering.
Schumb said Bella is probably suffering from separation anxiety, is recovering from surgery to spay her, and should be with Karanastasis.
The Humane Society has not named the people who adopted Bella as a birthday present for a 10-year-old girl.
Schumb contends that once the dog landed at the Humane Society after running away Jan. 2, the agency failed to put Bella in the stray dog kennels or other pens where Karanastasis and her friends could find her when they visited. Karanastasis says she went at least three times to check for her dog and that Bella wasn't there.
``We don't know whether it was hidden or what,'' Schumb said Tuesday. ``We know it was not available to the owners.''
Pete Karanastasis, Niki's husband, said, ``We don't think the dog was there those five days. We know people love these kind of dogs. Someone else probably wanted the dog.''
Humane Society officials insist the dog was not hidden.
``This is a mystery to all of us,'' said Christine Benninger, president of Humane Society Silicon Valley. ``There was a lot of confusion over whether the owner herself actually came to look for the animal. A dog will respond best to its owner, not a friend or neighbor. Maybe the dog didn't respond because the owner was not there.''
When Niki Karanastasis finally found her dog at the pound, Bella was in a cage awaiting spaying. She had already been adopted and Karanastasis was told she could not have the dog.
``The Humane Society said, `Sorry, the law is the law. We can't give you the dog.' Well, we don't think so,'' Schumb said.
The state mandates a five-day waiting period before animals at the Humane Society without identification, like Bella, can be put up for adoption. At that point, the animals become the property of the Humane Society.
Bella's story has generated more than 500 e-mails and dozens of calls to radio and TV stations, the Humane Society, and the Mercury News, calling for the new owners to give up the dog.
Karanastasis has been asked to give interviews to several TV and radio stations across the country, including the ``CBS Morning News'' in New York and ``Good Morning America.''
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Contact Connie Skipitares at cskipitares@mercurynews.com or (408) 920-5647.

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© 2004 Mercury News and wire service sources. All Rights Reserved.
http://www.mercurynews.com


Answer:
I side with the shelter. It's probably not that the shelter didn't tell her the dog was there, but that she and her friends did not SEE the dog there. I'm always surprised by people: I've had people walk by their dogs and cats at the shelter and miss seeing them completely!


Answer:
That could have been what happened, she might not have seen her dog the first few times she went there.
I guess it's between following the letter of the law and the spirit of the law. Lawfully, the woman lost rights to her pet once it was the 6th day. But she found her dog on the 6th day, but it was already assigned to an adoptive family, but hadn't been picked up yet.
Anyway, if she had tags on her dog, she would have had 10 days. ID tags make the difference.


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I have mixed feeling about this. Do we know if the original owner had a habit of letting Bella run loose or was it just a freak escape.?


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The dog is back with her original owner!
Brenda, I think it was a freak escape, in the article the woman says she took Bella's collar off 'cos she caught it on some scaffolding and was afraid of her dog suffocating.
www.sfgate.com Return to regular view
Wayward dog is back in its San Jose home
Owners threatened to sue when humane society let golden retriever be adopted
Alan Gathright, Chronicle Staff Writer
Thursday, January 22, 2004
©2004 San Francisco Chronicle | Feedback | FAQ
URL: sfgate.com/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2004/01/22/DOG.TMP

A looming canine custody lawsuit was avoided Wednesday when a wayward golden retriever who'd been the subject of a hotly disputed animal shelter adoption had a tail-wagging, face-licking reunion with her grateful owners.
For days, irate talk-radio callers and internet chatterers had been debating the fate of Bella, whose San Jose owner had finally found the pooch at the local animal shelter -- only to learn that she was too late.
Hours earlier, Bella had been adopted by a Los Gatos woman as a birthday present for her 10-year-old daughter.
What ensued was a battle that sparked a modern-day morality play. Bella's owners, Niki and Pete Karanastasis, contend they repeatedly visited the Humane Society Silicon Valley shelter without finding their dog until Jan. 8. By then, however, the shelter's five-day deadline for owners to claim pets had passed, and the dog was put up for adoption.
Niki Karanastasis says her friend had a brief telephone conversation with the unidentified woman who adopted Bella for her daughter. The friend offered on the Karanastasises' behalf to buy a puppy for the girl in exchange for Bella, but the new owner refused, because they had already "bonded'' with Bella.
Humane society officials, however, say the dog tale was far shaggier than clear cut. They say the adopting family offered to buy the Karanastasises a puppy. The family resisted returning Bella because they were skeptical about whether the couple were the dog's true owners. Bella was found by the Humane Society on Jan. 2 -- the day the Karanastasises say she went missing -- without a collar or identifying tags.
If the dispute hadn't been resolved, Bella's owners had planned to sue the humane society today to reclaim their retriever.
"It was very clear at that reunion that Bella recognized them and was very happy to see them,'' said Christine Benninger, president of Humane Society Silicon Valley in Santa Clara.
Niki Karanastasis' attorney, Christopher Schumb, says humane society officials tested whether Karanastasis, who'd trained the dog to respond to commands in her native Greek, owned Bella.
"They made her call the dog and speak to her in Greek,'' Schumb said. "That was sort of silly.''
However, he added, "My client is ecstatic. If you can imagine a dog smiling, Bella was smiling. The dog just curled up in her lap.''
A tearful, tired Niki Karanastasis told KRON-TV the ordeal "was like losing a child. I want to tell every single person out there who has a dog to put a (an identifying computer chip) on it.''
Bella's return was also traumatic for the young girl, who cried upon learning she had to give up her new dog, Benninger said. The girl had worked six months raising the $130 dog adoption fee, which includes spaying, shots and a implanted ID microchip.
"So, she's absolutely devastated. Bella slept at her beside every night,'' Benninger said. "But the humane society has agreed that we will find them another dog at no cost."
Bella escaped Jan. 2 with an older black Labrador, Zina, from the couple's backyard. Niki Karanastasis says she'd removed Bella's collar because the dog had snagged it on a scaffolding for a home construction project, and the owner feared accidental strangulation.
Bella was found by a dog catcher the day she disappeared, while Zina remains missing. Niki Karanastasis says that while the couple and a friend visited the animal shelter on six of the next seven days, they never saw Bella until after the deadline. This is partly explained by the dog's being temporarily removed from the public kennels briefly for treatment of cuts on its paws suffered while it was lost.
"It's still a mystery to us,'' said Benninger, who said the agency would review procedures for how lost pets were displayed and adopted. "I don't know why they weren't able to find their dog. I mean, we are not hiding dogs here.''
The agency, which was flooded with calls both criticizing the handling of Bella's adoption and requesting microchip tagging of pets, is offering a half-off sale on the identification implant in February.
©2004 San Francisco Chronicle | Feedback | FAQ
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From: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/articl.../01/22/DOG.TMP


Answer:
I'm happy they got their dog back! Even though I was originally siding with the shelter... if the dog was in a different room that the public didn't have access to, then the description of the dog has to be posted for them to see it.. we have a bulletin board at our shelter with descriptions of animals in locked rooms.
If any good came out of this situation, it is that people recognize the importance of ID tags & microchips... even if she removed the collar because of being afraid of the dog strangling herself, the microchip would have still been found.


Answer:
Yes, please microchip your pets if you have the option!
I'd hang cowbells around my dog's neck if I thought it would help them find their way home quicker.
Even if her dog was being treated in a different room, could she have spoken with a shelter worker to confirm that her dog is there? Are potential owners of found dogs allowed into the treatment rooms to confirm their pet's identity or do they have to wait until their dog is out in the display cages?


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I have no idea how it works at that shelter.. but we post a description of stray animals on a bulletin board.. the ones that are in treatment rooms, isolation etc. If an animal matches the description of the persons lost pet.. we then let them in to verify if its the right animal.