The strange case of the animal control officer who stole a lost dog

As terrible as it is to have a beloved dog run away, it is even worse when the person who is supposed to return the dog instead gives her away and lies about it.

The saga all started when Janet Torren’s 4-year-old Yorkshire Terrier Shai wiggled out of a sliding glass door while she was visiting her son in Stoughton, Massachusetts.

Shai was found and taken to the town shelter that day.

But for the next 12 days Torren called the shelter many times and was told they did not have her dog. She knocked on doors, made phone calls, and did everything she could to locate Shai.

“I was frantic,’’ she said. “Our children are grown, and Shai is a baby to us; we treat her as our little princess. She’s a family member. She’s absolutely loving...I felt like I was trying to get the dog back, and no one was helping me, and the people supposed to help me weren’t.’’

Since Shai had a microchip implanted, she called one company and was told they had received no reports. Then she called another company and found that the chip had been scanned by the town shelter on the same day Shai had gone missing.

So again she called Kristin Bousquet, the town’s animal control officer, who again denied any knowledge of the missing dog, saying that someone else must have scanned the dog.

“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.’’

Finally Torren met with Thomas Murphy, the Chief of Police. After talking for a few minutes he walked out and came back carrying Shai.

After a brief investigation he had found that Bousquet had given the dog to a police officer’s girl friend who was planning to move to Florida with Shai. Neither the officer nor the girl friend knew that the dog belonged to someone.

Bousquet, who has worked as animal control officer for 7 years, refused to take calls from the media, but admitted in an email that she had not been “100 percent truthful’’ about the incident.

She was fired from her job and hopefully will never again work with animals or humans. Source

Comments

[Jimmy]

Cant
Understand
Normal
Thinking

Read the first letters vertically!!!!
Yes.....she is one of those!!!!!!

[Khyra]

WTF?

Hoomans keep lowering the bar fur stoopid!

Hugz&Khysses,
Khyra

[jackie]

mean mean mean...

[Lynne]

Very sad, but it happens. My Cousin is a vet and took care of a found dog brought in for a check up. While examining the dog he also checked to see if it had a chip. It did. He told the person who found the dog that it had a chip and knew who it belonged too. The person would not acknowledge the info and flat out said she would not give the dog up. My cousin said he wouldn't wrestle the dog away from her. My cousin then called the police and they said legally they could do nothing about it. I'm wondering if things have changed legally now.

[Dennis the Vizsla]

And once again we see why dogs are better than people ...

[jansfunnyfarm]

What a ... Never mind. We're glad she was fired.

[Serendipity]

What a terrible person!

[Tammy]

Wow. What a very strange, sad story. I'm glad that Shai was finally reunited with her proper owners. And it is very fitting that Bousquet lost her job!

[Col]

How heartbreaking for Janet. I am just so relieved that Shai found her way home.

[Clive]

Horrible people out there!

We're just very glad that Shai ended up back with her 'true' owners.

[Sling]

She's lucky she only got fired..I'm pretty sure there's a criminal complaint here.

[Pai]

@Lynn -- If it's proven that it belongs to one person via a chip and someone else takes the dog, how is that not theft?! The police must have been mistaken. If it were my dog I wouldn'tve taken their NO for an answer!

[cube]

I agree with Pai's comment. That's the reason for the chip in the first place! Those cops were wrong not to proceed with an investigation.