Hello,

My wife and I found a stray dog little more then two years ago. He
was in terrible shape. We were unable to locate the owners. We took
him to the vet numerous times to get his health back in order. We
also have kept up with his shots. We have all records and pictures of
his original condition. About 2 weeks ago the original owners spoted
him and after the police were called the officer allowed them to take
him. My question is: Is there a time period that the law says after a
certain amount of time the dog(property) belongs to us. We live in
Maryland, but any information from any state might help.

David Ehrenreich wrote:
Hello,
My wife and I found a stray dog little more then two years ago. He was in terrible shape. We were unable to locate the owners. We took him to the vet numerous times to get his health back in order. We also have kept up with his shots. We have all records and pictures of his original condition. About 2 weeks ago the original owners spoted him and after the police were called the officer allowed them to take him. My question is: Is there a time period that the law says after a certain amount of time the dog(property) belongs to us. We live in Maryland, but any information from any state might help.

No collar and no ID tag to show who the owner is, the animal is "wild".
The officer was wrong in judgement. He should have advised the former owner
to file a claim in small claims court.
The officer has no way of knowing who the owner is without documented proof.
Since you owned and cared for the animal for two previous years, the courts
would probably say you have custody.
However, I am not a small claims court judge and have no real clues as to
how it should be ruled.
I'd personally take the matter to court, as well as the officer, and let the
courts decide.
You should at least be reimbursed for the maintenance fees.

Legal advice is obtained by hiring an attorney.

On 14 Oct 2003 09:36:19 -0700 David Ehrenreich <thx606@cablespeed.com> whittled these words:
My wife and I found a stray dog little more then two years ago. He was in terrible shape. We were unable to locate the owners. We took him to the vet numerous times to get his health back in order. We also have kept up with his shots. We have all records and pictures of his original condition. About 2 weeks ago the original owners spoted him and after the police were called the officer allowed them to take him. My question is: Is there a time period that the law says after a certain amount of time the dog(property) belongs to us. We live in Maryland, but any information from any state might help.

Thanks for caring about the dog.

Well a lost dog is treated in a manner similar to other found property.
States do differ on the requirements. Usually they require some very
specific steps to give notice to the owner. The period that the owner has
in California to reclaim the dog is, I think, 30 days. ANd THAT is
assuming you (a) notified animal control and (b) published the required
public notice. Animal shelters are allowed a much shorter period, in part
because owners are expected to know to check there. Some communities
require the dog to be turned over to the shelter (I think Maryland maybe
one of them) but give the finder the right to redeem the dog. I that case,
I think, the period is something like four days.

I sympathize with how disappointed you must feel but I can tell you from
experience that crazy things happen when it comes to lost dogs - its
really hard to tell exactly how negligent the owner was. It is not at all
rare for one person to find a dog with a collar and tags, tie the dog up
only to have the dog escape by slipping the collar. It is also very
common for people picking up a stray to transport it for miles only to
lose it again. By that time the dog is far beyond the radius the owner is
thinking to look for it. Then over time it makes its way back but by
this time the dog's condition has changed so much that posted signs just
don't look like their dog.

Diane Blackman

thx606@cablespeed.com (David Ehrenreich) wrote in message news:<53138f45.0310140836.5dd82209@posting.google.com>... Hello, My wife and I found a stray dog little more then two years ago. He was in terrible shape. We were unable to locate the owners. We took him to the vet numerous times to get his health back in order. We also have kept up with his shots. We have all records and pictures of his original condition. About 2 weeks ago the original owners spoted him and after the police were called the officer allowed them to take him. My question is: Is there a time period that the law says after a certain amount of time the dog(property) belongs to us. We live in Maryland, but any information from any state might help.

So unfortunate that you are being put upon for doing a good deed.

Usually, the dog still belongs to the original owners. You are a
gratuitous bailee, or something of the sort; the terminology varies.
(There are "gratuitous keeper" laws of considerable antiquity; the
concept is well developed in Jewish law, for example.) This obliges
you to use ordinary care in keeping the dog and attempting to locate
the owner, and in returning it when the owner claims it. (A gratuitous
bailee normally isn't obliged to use more than "slight care", but this
is often raised to "ordinary care" when the bailment involves an
animal.) Unless you do something more than that to become the animal's
rightful owner, you don't cut off the original owner's rights.

Sometimes state or local law obliges you to turn stray animals over to
whatever local shelter or animal control agency exists. It is not
uncommon to adopt a stray by turning the animal over and then adopting
it back, and doing so would give you a stronger claim to ownership
when the original owners showed up.

Especially if the dog needed immediate veterinary care, you may have a
claim for restitution, for the amounts you spent on such care -- and
the owner who refused your claim would be a great ingrate indeed.

--
Not a lawyer,

Chris Green

TOTE@dog-play.com wrote:
On 14 Oct 2003 09:36:19 -0700 David Ehrenreich <thx606@cablespeed.com> whittled these words: Some communities require the dog to be turned over to the shelter (I think Maryland maybe one of them) but give the finder the right to redeem the dog. I that case, I think, the period is something like four days.

Maryland does not require the dog be turned over to the shelter. I know this because when we
lived in Montgomery County, we found a dog, we reported it to the shelter giving our name,
address, phone number and where we found the dog as well as a description of it. They asked us
if we were going to turn the dog in and we said that if the owner did not come back for it we
wanted to keep it.

Shelter never required us to bring the dog in nor did they come after it. We still have the
dog. It's been four years. We also no longer live in Maryland but that's another story.

This was about the third or fourth dog we found when we lived in Montgomery County because in
the other cases, the person who lost the dog had reported it and we were able to see to it that
they got their dog back.

--
Paul Robinson "Above all else... We shall go on..."
"...And continue!"
"If the lessons of history teach us anything it is
that nobody learns the lessons that history teaches us."