A Butte, Montana man says his dog-sitter gave up his dogs to the Butte animal shelter without telling him.
Joel Lane hired a woman from his town to watch his dogs, Chewy and Lucy, for $500 while he was serving 80 days in jail.
He called her every week to check up on them, but when he finally arrived to pick them up, she told him that she had brought them to the Chelsea Bailey Animal Shelter.
Lane immediately took a taxi to the shelter, hoping his dogs were still there. But when he got there, he sadly learned that both of them had already been adopted.
Lane was crushed, since he had been very close with his dogs and has spent every day with them for the last seven years.
“It just hurts. It’s been hurting me. I’d be willing to give up everything I have just to get my dogs back,” Lane told NBC Montana.
The shelter said although every dog’s best interest is their priority, they have to follow the law.
When a stray or lost dog ends up at their shelter, they do everything they can to find their previous home. They post on social media and put ads in the paper and on the radio. But once 72 hours are up, the animal becomes the property of Butte-Silver Bow, as stated by the county ordinance, and is available for adoption.
Because of this, Lane’s dogs may legally be someone else’s now, which will be hard for him to get them back.
