What They Found (WTF); Sir Lancelot or OZ?
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| Recent social media post from a local Pet Parent |
...and he has a legal responsibility too, but we'll get to that later. Unfortunately, this is all too frequent of a situation! At least and fortunately for this person; the story ends happily and Oz made it back to his loving family.
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This particular story started some time ago with the owner blasting
multiple social media sites (example to the right), posting flyers around the
area, contacting local shelters and Vets, etc. In other words, the normal thing
a family would do for a missing pet member.
Additionally;
- Oz was and is still micro-chipped with a
current address and contact information,
- clearly does not look under fed, under cared
for, abused, diseased, cut up from fights, or any other of the many excuses
people give for keeping a found animal,
- was and is well loved and cared for,
- and does not act like a stray or feral cat.
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In fact, this spoiled house cat is well trained and as you already know from the outcome of this story, isn’t going to be kept from his family.
Despite all of this, the people that stole Oz decided they were going to keep him. They even gave Oz a new name (Sir Lancelot) and gave him a collar with their information on! Thankfully, they can’t change the microchip and they couldn't stop Oz from loving and wanting his family and home.
So what should have the thief done in this situation? Common sense would lead us to believe, he/she would check and post on social media, contact local shelters and/or vets, keep an eye out for flyers, check to see if the cat was micro-chipped, etc. Since all too often, like in this situation, common sense doesn't prevail, there are multiple laws, regulations, and ordinances about this sort of thing. Depending upon where a person lives, the legal obligations may differ and may come from the federal level all the way down to the state and municipal (county, city, township, etc.) levels.
South Dakota state law is simple and very much common sensical in this situation.
- 40-29-24 - Report by person taking up estray--Violation as misdemeanor.
- Any person taking up an estray shall provide a written description of the estray and report where the estray was found within ten days thereafter to the county sheriff or the State Brand Board. Any person who fails to notify the sheriff or the board is guilty of a Class 1 misdemeanor.
Then the sheriff takes over from there and acts according to law.
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Here’s another local and recent (Sept 4) situation where somebody
found a cat and mentions keeping it.
As you can see from the following snippets of comments that followed,
this is a debated subject with people having lots of varying opinions.
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In the end, this isn't even a situation that needs debate. If common sense can't prevail due to the lack of understanding by the finder or the lack of action by the owner, then simply report the animal to the Sheriff within 10 days, the rest will be done for the person that found the animal, everyone wins, and the finder becomes the hero.
The family in the original story was devastated when their cat went missing and elated to see him come home. I have yet to see the outcome of the second story and can only hope that family will be so lucky and that this person decides to be the hero instead of the villain.
Check out the links below for additional information on finding stray animals. Interesting note, that most (SD included) laws don't distinguish between feral and stray animals. In either situation, the animal should be reported.
Estray vs. Feral
