Shadow was a female Doberman that came into DAR&E in February of 2005 from the Shenandoah Valley area of Virginia.  She was adopted to an individual who met DAR&E’s criteria of an approved adopter.  DAR&E had him verbally promise that he would not leave the dog outside and remove the dog house that was in the yard.  The contract that the adopter signed had no such clause.

PER DAR&E’S CONTRACT DURING THAT TIME PERIOD AND UNDER THE HEADING:

 “Adopter further promises, covenants and agrees to the following:

5.  To keep Dog as a house pet, to be exercised in a  

     fenced yard or on a leash, and not be allowed to

     roam the streets;”

The adopter had a chain link fence and the dog house was moved back into the yard after he received Shadow.  Shadow was left outside when he wasn’t home and did get out and was picked up by AC.  The adopter then installed an electric fence to back up the chain link.  Shadow was a bundle of young energy and barked her fool head off when outside alone but there were apparently no complaints filed and no one seemed to notice.

So to remedy the situation, DAR&E proceeded to trespass and remove the dog from the adopter’s yard without his knowledge or permission.  In other words they stole the dog.

Shadow was placed back into foster care and shortly rehomed.  The previous adopter filed charges (both civil and criminal) against DAR&E’s BoD and the foster.  Charges were subsequently dropped after an agreement was reached.

Athy seems to find both lying and blackmail distasteful when it is practiced against her, yet has no problem doing so herself.  From what looks to be a long standing habit of, for want of a better word...stealing dogs for a variety of reasons.