Stupid People Tricks: I Want The Dog I Dumped Back

The things you read on Facebook.  More food for blogging fodder than one can imagine: 

Here's one:

My husband and I were married on March -------- he purchased Dixie in April of ------- On March 5th we got into a argument and he said get rid of the dog. I took her to the Manchester Animal Shelter and surrendered her. There was no money given and she went immediately into a foster home. When my husband found out that I actually surrendered her he tried calling the shelter to get her back. She is registered to him and all the paperwork from when she was purchased is in his name. Obviously at this point we are still together and have worked out our problems and want Dixie back and the shelter is refusing to give her back. We had 2 different ways of how a dog should be viewed and now that she is not here I think he has decided that I was right!!!! 
There is obviously a lot more to the story but like I said I don't want to type a long e-mail and I'm sure you don't want to read one!!!
My husband and I have been treated with disrespect by a woman on the board over the phone, I have only spoken to this woman twice and the first time I told her I wanted Dixie back and she said "this is unbelievable I could of had this dog adopted out by now and now I have to figure out if there are boarding fees and how this will be charged, someone will call you or your husband tomorrow" She called tomorrow after I told my 13 year old she would be home and she said the board decided to honor the surrender and told my husband there were too many discrepancies in his story. We are willing to pay the adoption fee to have her back, we just want our dog back, she is part of this family.

Posted March 16, 2013

Well, as you can only imagine, this opened a floodgate of such invective!  The old "piece of scum" etc and "if it weren't a purebred" etc. etc.  What does the assumption of the dog being a purebred because it's registered have to do with anything?  

My response to this post was surprisingly measured. Especially for me:

This is what I'd say to this woman: Once you surrendered her, legally you relinquished all rights to her. The shelter could euthanize her in any way, adopt her out, foster her. The "rude" woman on the phone is most likely an over-worked employee and, while she should have professional and firm with you instead, the mere fact that they are considering selling you back a dog who is no longer yours and charging you boarding fees seems not entirely unreasonable. Animals in most states are still considered property and as such, possession in this case, is 9/10th of the law. Next time, if there is one, just take the dog to a reputable boarding kennel for a week.  It wouldn't matter if this dog was a purebred, "registered" (which means nothing) and not, the principle is still the same. He'd have to prove legal ownership and "papers" prove nothing unless its the microchip or tattoo registered in his name.  And even then, it's a slippery slope.