Animal Lovers Web Forum

A family had their 13 year old golden lab go missing. They have searched for months. Finally they found his picture on an animal shelter web site as a dog available for adoption. They were overjoyed to find him and then they found out that he had already been adopted. They are not getting him back. The shelter is not helping and the adoptive family wants to keep him.
They are trying a social media campaign in hopes of reaching the new people who have him. They are still hoping their dog will be returned to them. 

https://youtu.be/gzv_8i1rltg

This is a sad situation. He is a 13 year old dog. He has spend his whole life with one family. 
The people want him back, but more importantly  the dog must want to come home.
The new family has only had him a few days. I can understand that they want him, but his family wants him more and he wants them more.

Shelters have had things like this happen before. They need to sort out a way to deal with this problem. Maybe  shelters need to be more careful about putting  dogs up for adoption. Certainly they should help the family get their dog back. The adoptive family could be offered another dog. Their bond with the dog after a few days is not comparable with the bond formed after 13 years.

I hope the adoptive family does the right thing. Clearly the shelter is not going to do anything.

There is no mention of the dog having been microchipped - and, of course, keeping the contact details up to date on the computer records. This sad story only underlines just how important this is.

Almost all shelters, AFAIK, even in the USA, check for a microchip and/or other tags or markings, as soon as a lost animal is found. Better safe than sorry.

In France and the UK, a microchip for a domestic animal is compulsory. In the USA, there isn't even one state AFAIK which has mandated microchips for domestic animals.

This is definitely a case where micro chipping would have made a difference. They are in a fairly rural area so micro chipping might not have been available or necessary. It would have solved the whole problem. I think the shelter would have checked for a micro chip.

Even a tattoo  would have made a difference. I found a Siamese cat in the woods, a long way from home. His ear tattoo was registered and I had his people's phone number in minutes. Zeke has been missing for weeks,  but they came and got him that same day. This story predates micro chips of course.

I wonder if he had a collar with his information? It probably didn't seen necessary living in a rural area.

The dog should still go back to them. At his age he belongs with his people. 
Sadly if he was micro chipped he would be home now.