Why must people do this?!

Draco · Jan 27, 2012

On my way in to Stop and Shop for food shopping, I saw a woman untying a small pomeranian from outside of the store. I assume the owner left the dog outside while she did food shopping.

On my way out, I saw two cops and a hysterical woman.. apparently, this was the REAL owner of the pomeranian. The dog was stolen by the other woman I saw. I walked over and gave the description of the dognapper, best as I can since it was dark and she was wearing heavy coat.

The woman was clearly upset, but WHY would a person leave a dog tied up outside the store while you go shopping, leaving the dog unsupervised?! Especially a pedigree dog that's clearly expensive! I've heard so many of these stories, it makes me sad that people would tie them up outside anyway

The dog napper will be selling this dog for hundreds of dollars now. I hope she can get it back!

pushylady · Jan 27, 2012

I never ever ever tie up a dog so I can run into a store! Never!!! It's just not worth the risk.

yayi · Jan 27, 2012

Perhaps the store did not allow pets so the woman had no choice but to leave it outside.

mystik spiral · Jan 27, 2012

yayi said:
Perhaps the store did not allow pets so the woman had no choice but to leave it outside.

Not buying it. Most grocery stores won't allow animals unless they are service animals for people with disabilities. This woman clearly intended to take her dog with her as she ran errands. If she unexpectedly needed something from the grocery store THAT badly, she would have either taken the dog home and come back, or left the dog in the car for 5 minutes. I hope she gets the dog back, but either way... lesson learned. I don't mean to sound harsh, but at least she will never do it again.

jcat · Jan 28, 2012

It's risky, but something people do all the time in our small town and in the large city I work in. Some stores even have hooks for leashes and signs that say "We have to stay outside". People "park" their dogs outside stores, banks, etc., while they run in to pick up a few items or withdraw/transfer money. Either they're on foot or don't want to risk leaving the dog in the car in warm/hot weather.

One guy in our town takes his German Shepherd everywhere. She's a beautiful thing and extremely friendly - I'd really be afraid somebody would steal her (I've told the man several times I'd love to).

jennyr · Jan 28, 2012

I have often wondered how safe dogs are left outside stores - you see them all the time. I would never leave Tasha like that - if I take her with me I leave her in the car with the windows open and a water bowl, and I don't take her in hot weather.

Draco · Jan 28, 2012

If a person knows they're going to do shopping, no matter how quick it may be, then they really shouldn't take their dogs to begin with, knowing the dogs would be tied up.

Being in the car is OK for a short amount of time and in the right temperature.

catbehaviors · Jan 28, 2012

jcat said:
It's risky, but something people do all the time in our small town and in the large city I work in. Some stores even have hooks for leashes and signs that say "We have to stay outside". People "park" their dogs outside stores, banks, etc., while they run in to pick up a few items or withdraw/transfer money. Either they're on foot or don't want to risk leaving the dog in the car in warm/hot weather.

One guy in our town takes his German Shepherd everywhere. She's a beautiful thing and extremely friendly - I'd really be afraid somebody would steal her (I've told the man several times I'd love to).

That's how it is in the small town I live in, too. :nod:

nekochan · Feb 1, 2012

It's not just small towns. I live in Chicago (in the city) and people do it here too.

jcat · Feb 2, 2012

Nekochan said:
It's not just small towns. I live in Chicago (in the city) and people do it here too.

I see it in the city all the time, because a lot of people don't drive there (too much traffic and too few parking places). That means they usually have to shop more often, and it makes sense for them to combine walking the dog with picking up a few items. A surprising number of people also take their dogs to work with them (at one time I had two colleagues who did that for years, and I occasionally took our dog when getting home in time to let him out, etc., was a problem) and stop for stuff on the way home.

aeevr · Feb 2, 2012

They just don't know the danger.

Why steal a pet when you could get one for free (or almost free) at a shelter/craigslist?

It's hard to keep ahead of all the possible evils lurking out there.

nerdrock · Feb 2, 2012

There is A LOT of pet stealing that goes on around here. People will grab other people's pets from their fenced in yards, then sell them for a profit on Kijiji, or wait until the pet is posted with a reward and then go collect the reward. If it's a female and it's not spayed, they'll take them to puppymills, same with males to a lesser extent.

One of my friends is a breeder and shows her dogs, she had one of her best dogs stolen out of her yard by someone she kept beating at shows. The person that stole him took him into animal control and because he was listed as a surrender, they neutered him and had him up for a adoption by the time my friend finally found him. She had called AC every day for a week to see if he was there and to keep them on alert for him, he was microchipped and everything. She did get him back, but now he's gone from a highly valued and sought after stud to a house pet (I don't mean that being a house pet is bad). It really set her program back and cost her a lot of money.

I live in the downtown core of my city, if I decide to walk my dogs and do some shopping at the same time I bring someone with me. One of us will stay outside with the dogs, the other will run in and grab the few things that I need. I NEVER leave them tied outside.

miagi's_mommy · Feb 2, 2012

Well, I have went to the gas station with my Jenny (RIP) and left her out for a bit. My eyes were on her the whole time and she did fine. I kept opening the door to check on her. This was when I was a teen and there were sex offenders in the area and my parents wouldn't let me go by myself so I took my dog with me. I am sure I may not be an exception to you guys.. but it wasn't hot that day and plus I went to get a drink and leaving her wasn't an option as I had my dog with me to protect me. But I cannot stand when people do that if they go to the store and leave their dog tied up. The dog looks so confused. My Jenny was fine and knew I was coming back because I kept checking on her when I was there to buy my drink. It only took me 5 minutes! We usually never take our dogs to stores we are going to be in buying a lot of stuff and they have to sit in the car.

It's not fair to them!

nekochan · Feb 2, 2012

I can see the appeal of it and all, I know my dog prefers to go places with me rather than stay at home even if we're only going to run errands and she stays in the car with one of us while someone goes in a store. Before my brother moved out of state, we used to walk my dogs together and stop at the produce store or Dunkin Donuts fairly often, with one person waiting with the dogs while the other went inside. In fact we used to go to Dunkin Donuts so often, like up to a few times a week, that the guy that owned it started spontaneously giving us a bag of donuts "for the doggies" whenever we came in.

Basically the slightly older donuts because they'd make fresh ones all the time. Of course I only would give the dogs some small pieces, donuts aren't really a healthy snack for them heh (especially since my dogs were usually on a grain free diet!) Even though they only got a taste, the dogs would get excited whenever we got near that place!

I guess it's not just that one location either because we went to a different Dunkin Donuts once with my brother and the dogs waiting outside, and the guy behind the counter noticed the dogs and did the same thing. Dunkin Donuts are really common around here. My brother and I used to joke that if we'd wanted to we could walk the dogs to a different Dunkin Donuts for every day of the week, that's how many there are in the area. I kinda wondered if they do that a lot, if there are some dogs in the neighborhood living off Dunkin Donuts though, or what.

They also opened an Oberweis in my neighborhood a few years go so we'd walk the dogs there sometimes too in the nicer weather, but they have a walk-up window so you don't even have to go in to get something...

nerdrock · Feb 2, 2012

Nekochan said:
I can see the appeal of it and all, I know my dog prefers to go places with me rather than stay at home even if we're only going to run errands and she stays in the car with one of us while someone goes in a store. Before my brother moved out of state, we used to walk my dogs together and stop at the produce store or Dunkin Donuts fairly often, with one person waiting with the dogs while the other went inside. In fact we used to go to Dunkin Donuts so often, like up to a few times a week, that the guy that owned it started spontaneously giving us a bag of donuts "for the doggies" whenever we came in.

Basically the slightly older donuts because they'd make fresh ones all the time. Of course I only would give the dogs some small pieces, donuts aren't really a healthy snack for them heh (especially since my dogs were usually on a grain free diet!) Even though they only got a taste, the dogs would get excited whenever we got near that place!

I guess it's not just that one location either because we went to a different Dunkin Donuts once with my brother and the dogs waiting outside, and the guy behind the counter noticed the dogs and did the same thing. Dunkin Donuts are really common around here. My brother and I used to joke that if we'd wanted to we could walk the dogs to a different Dunkin Donuts for every day of the week, that's how many there are in the area. I kinda wondered if they do that a lot, if there are some dogs in the neighborhood living off Dunkin Donuts though, or what.

They also opened an Oberweis in my neighborhood a few years go so we'd walk the dogs there sometimes too in the nicer weather, but they have a walk-up window so you don't even have to go in to get something...

In Canada there is a chain called Tim Horton's, I worked there when I was 16 up until I was 19 and left for college. We were told to give the dog's in people's cars "old fashioned plain" timbits (I think in the states they're called donut holes?). After working there for two years, it was abruptly ended for some reason, but we still did it for the regulars.

mbjerkness · Feb 3, 2012

nerdrock said:
In Canada there is a chain called Tim Horton's, I worked there when I was 16 up until I was 19 and left for college. We were told to give the dog's in people's cars "old fashioned plain" timbits (I think in the states they're called donut holes?). After working there for two years, it was abruptly ended for some reason, but we still did it for the regulars.

My little pomeranian Sophie loved to go to Tim hortons for donuts. one time she actually put her paws on the drive through shelve to get her timbit

nerdrock · Feb 3, 2012

mbjerkness said:
My little pomeranian Sophie loved to go to Tim hortons for donuts. one time she actually put her paws on the drive through shelve to get her timbit

I was talking to a friend last night that still works for the company. I asked her why it was ended, because I couldn't remember. She said there were a few reasons - the first was that it was a liability for us if we were bitten while giving the dog a timbit (we usually just gave them to the owners anyways), the second was because people were complaining that we were giving out timbits to dogs, but not to kids, and the third reason was that people would come in and say they had dogs in their car but would then give the timbits to their kids or eat them themselves.

MOST of the time, the timbits were ones that were fresh, right out of the same tray that we got ones for people out of, but there were times when a batch of them would get dropped on the floor or something like that and we would use those. If people were eating them, it became a health and safety thing. Since we couldn't guarantee that they were actually giving them to their pets, well, you know.

It's sad when something like this is ruined because of a small percentage of people/customers complain. There are a few fast food chains that I go to where they will have Milk Bones at the drive through window for dogs, one place even had ones that were individually wrapped.

nekochan · Feb 3, 2012

Oh yeah also I didn't mean the guys at Dunkin Donuts were giving old bad donuts for the dogs or anything, they'd just take some from the regular donut trays.

I've heard of some fast food places or bank drive-up windows giving out treats. I think I've only gotten something like that once or twice though because my dogs sit in the back of the minivan so they usually wouldn't know there's a dog back there when we drive up somewhere.

Why must people do this?!

NOT Malfoy!

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