Missing Dog Given As Gift
This is a strange story about a Yorkie who escaped from a house, was found by animal control, and given away as a gift.
It all started when Janet Torren took her 4-year-old dog Shai over to her son’s house for a visit. When the two of them went out Shai managed to get out a sliding door and was eventually picked up by animal control. Torren searched for her beloved dog for 12 days, knocking on doors and making phone calls.
She had called the Stoughton Animal Control many times but was always told her dog was not there. Shai had a microchip so Torren called the company to see if any vets had scanned it in, no one had. However, she decided to call another company and then learned the chip had been scanned by the town pound in Stoughton, the one she had been calling.
Here are the details from Boston.com.
So, once again, Torren called Kristin Bousquet, the town’s animal control officer. There was no answer. After Torren left a message threatening to call police, Bousquet called back and tried to suggest someone else at the pound or the local rescue league may have scanned Shai’s microchip, even though Torren said the company told her that Bousquet had registered Shai.
“It was a continuing change of the story,’’ Torren said. “There was nothing solid to what she was saying. If I asked her a question, she changed the answer. It was one lie after another.’’
After a brief investigation, Murphy found that Bousquet had given the dog to a police officer’s girlfriend, who was planning to move to Florida with Shai. He found that the dog was well fed and in good condition. The officer and his girlfriend, neither of whom Murphy identified, did not know that the dog had been missing, Murphy said.
Torren decided not to press charges against Bousquet, but she was fired from her job as animal control officer last week.
* Pic courtesy David Abel/Globe Staff. Call me crazy, but that doesn’t look like a Yorkie to me.
Wow, what an amazing story!
Good grief, you can even trust the people at the shelter??? That is awful! I’m glad the dog was returned safely.
I’m glad torren got her dog back and the AC officer lost her job. Sounds like she was trying to get the officer’s favor, girlfriend leaving town, and that would free the officer up for her. Or maybe she really wanted to be a police officer instead of an animal control officer. It is sad when you cannot even trust those who are to care for our pet if it gets lost not give it away. And in most cases, don’t they have to hold the pet for a number of days. The officer got what she deserved.
I’m glad that cow lost her job. She totally deserved to. They didn’t say that Shai was returned to her family, but I’m guessing she would have, eh?
That lady is a you know what! And Thats one strangly colored Yorkie, beautiful though and We have seen them before, a rarity of sorts we assume. We are happy that Shai was reunited!
Oh my gosh good she should have got fired. I mean, the people we need to trust with are pets when they get lost aren’t doing there jobs this make me so mad!
Sounds like this person may have been jaded and assumed that because the dog got away from the owner that the owner was somehow irresponsible and didn’t deserve the dog back. Complete lack of ethics…
“Thankfully, the dog was reunited with the owner, and it was well kept,’’ Murphy said by phone. “Unfortunately, the pain, the worries, and the anguish weren’t necessary. I hope she can enjoy a long life with her pet.’’
So yup she got her baby back.
Another story that makes me glad that my dogs are microchipped!
Glad she lost her job… VERY GLAD . Great pity as a ”public servant” she wasnt prosectuted for lying.
And that… is very much closer to a proper old style original Yorkshire Terrier. As in, one bred to hunt in Yorkshire England.
NOT one of the show type or little sized so named terriers.
Show bred or from show stock ”any breed” bear little resembalance these days to the orginal animal.
I’m glad she got fired, she deserved it. Makes me wonder if she did this to other unsuspecting people before she got caught.
The dog looks more like a Morkie, maltese/yorkie. If she bought the dog at a pet shop, it’s a pm mix. You can’t find the original old style stock breed anymore because they don’t exist.
If you can’t trust the local Animal Control, who can you trust? I thought they were there to help get your dogs back to you…Not give them away as gifts…Glad all ended well for sweet Shai.
Huh…I would have pressed charges, I would have thrown every possible lawsuit at her. If animal control found my dog, then gave her away and lied to me about it, I would not take it sitting down like Torren did. I admire her for her patience and forgiveness, because I would not have been that cool about it.Bousquet lacks basic human morals and common sense, and the ability to function in society as well as perform the job she was assigned. I wish poor health and poverty upon her, and a happy and wonderful life to Torren and Shai.
This story concerns me, in that the owner’s original microchip registration didn’t catch the incident. The owner had to go a step farther & contact an unrelated registry, to find that the chip had been illicitly re-registered there? How can this happen, & what can we do to prevent it?! If the owner had not thought to go that step farther, she might have never known what happened to her dog….
It’s a good thing Torren was persistant or she never would have had the outcome she did. Glad Shai made it back home to her mom!
Sweet Poly–Some times people who purchase a micro chip think that the place where they had it inserted in their dog will register it, whether it be a vet’s office or a shelter (who only has the shelter’s name on it, if it is done before a dog is actually adopted), or a clinic.A lot of rescues microchip their dogs, but again, it only has their information on it, so you have to re-register it in your name.
When I had Princess done from Home Again, their was no information on it, except that the chip originated from Home Again. So I had to go on their site and register it to me as well.
You have to go on line and register it with your personal information. All these companies work different, and have different types of micro chips, that don’t work with every scanner, especially if out of state or out of country.
The AAHA is trying to get all micro chip tags under one data base to avoid this on going problem. A lot of shelters only use THEIR data base, which does not pick up all registered chips with all the different companies that manufacture them. Even if they tell you it is Universal, its not always the case.
You can check to see if your dogs chip is universally registered with them at:
http://www.petmicrochiplookup.org/Default.aspx
Their is also a wonderful site to read explaining how the data bases work for micro chips, plus a host of other great doggie info too.
http://news.vin.com/VINNews.aspx?articleId=13926
Spread the word. Make sure your dog is registered with All available data bases.
That was a disturbing story. I’m glad it worked out in the end and would sure like to know the story of that animal control worker and what really happened on her end.
Horst – a Yorkie with a weird haircut? I can see it.
This is why I hope Angel never gets picked up by Animal Control…
That said, I’m sure not everyone involved with Animal Control is that bad. Most probably keep the dog until the owner comes home.
Not only should that woman be fired, she should have had charges of theft filed against her. That’s what this amounted to. Especially after she scanned the chip and knew very well how to contact the owner.
You can’t always trust animal control, some of them are not too bright. I have a Yorkie whose color is similar to this one, he has a skin allergy and now in the summer he is almost all blond. I call him my golden boy
I work as a pet detective and was on a case where animal control actually stole two dogs Huskies, even shaving them to change their appearance. Only after a police report and threats that my trained coonhound could sniff out who had stolen the dogs, this officer was seen taking the dogs in his animal control truck, but they never showed up at the shelter, finally after one week the dogs were taken to the shelter in the middle of the night. I guess this officer didn’t want his misdeed sniffed out. I shudder to think that this stuff happens quite often.
Hey That looks like me…I am a Yorkie but a large one weighing in at 18 lbs.. Just because we are big and are ears don’t stand up we still are Yorkies..
Good thing she was fired cause who knows how many she gave away before..