Missing dog found, but already adopted out.

[Catherine]

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.