So sad.. womans dog mistaken for a coyote and set free.

[hikerchick]

yes, I feel bad for the poor dog as well. Humans failed this dog in every way.

 

[FourPawz]

Quote:
Amen to that. I got called to rescue a Papillon one time from the local shelter. Animal control, in all of its wisdom, had logged the dog in as a "Rat Terrier mix". A vet tech saw the dog and called me. It really would not be that hard to give new A/C hires a quick course in "what breed is this dog actually"?

I've seen everything under the canine sun referred to as a "terrier", especially poodle mixes (go figure). Those male Skyes and Sealyhams sure do get around!

 

[CityChicker]

Okay, in fairness to the shelter worker... IMHO, that dog *does* look more like a Coyote than a Shiba Inu. From that one picture (that is rather poor and barely shows any of the dog), it does not look like a Shiba Inu at all. I mean seriously look at that dog compared to pictures of Shibas. It looks nothing like a Shiba Inu. It also apparently had no collar and one article I read said that it had been loose since earlier in the month. I am not sure why some of the media accounts are so different, because some of the other mostly "blog" articles say the dog was removed from the backyard. That sounds very suspicious to me. I don't think the police very often would just remove a dog from an owner's backyard with no notice, so that sounds doubtful to me. I think it is more likely it got out and had no identification. OWNER'S FAULT.

The first clue it was a dog should have been its' personality, HOWEVER... one sign a wild animal has rabies is being overly friendly (as well as with other potential illnesses or ill health in general). Rabid animals are not always aggressive, sometimes the opposite occurs. This is basic animal care knowledge that almost anyone that works with animals should have learned. The size difference also between a large Shiba Inu and a small Coyote is also negligible at best, only a couple pounds.

I agree the whole situation was handled very poorly. I can see how the mistake could have been made, but several things along the way should have given them pause and made them think, at a minimum, it might be a domestic dog. Even if they were absolutely convinced it was a Coyote, why in God's name would they just release it somewhere!?! Beyond illogical. Especially since the officer had enough question about this decision that he snapped a picture. He should have been smart enough to put the brakes on the whole idea of releasing it. Who knows though. I guess I can't judge because the police probably have a lot more important things on their minds. Hindsight is 20/20 as they say.

 

[FourPawz]

Quote:
To play devil's advocate here, Shiba Inu are more cat-like than the average dog. They are master escape artists and they WILL panic if they get trapped. Perhaps the owner didn't have a collar on the dog because she has heard of many dogs that got their collars caught on something and strangled. It happens more than you realize. Perhaps this dog is microchipped. The nitwit animal control people probably never checked; after all this is a "coyote", so they didn't bother to follow protocol.

There are many people who only put the dog's collar on it if they're taking it somewhere because they are paranoid it could get choked to death. There is a solution - a harness to put the dog tags on.

http://www.ehow.com/how_5530550_prevent-dog-strangulation.html

"My dogs wore their collars at all times; I believed it was for their own safety. Then one day my year-old puppy was accidentally strangled by her collar while playing with one of my other dogs. After her death, I learned that dog-collar strangulation accidents happen frequently."

 

[noodleroo]

My hope is that what the animal control worker said was true and that the dog was released. If so, I'd prefer to think that a nice family did take her in. Unfortunately, My guess is that she would have been put down at the animal control office. The story about releasing her sounds far fetched to me. I'm guessing less liability to the office if there was the chance that she was still alive and running loose somewhere....

 

[PotterWatch]

Quote:
Its quite simple, there are SO many coydogs out there today in the wild that they are starting to look like... well... sled dogs actually. I've seen many a coyote pelt from reputable trappers that looked JUST like Fido next too. Amazing and beautiful pelts and they make gorgeous mounts, but they DO look like dogs!

Reminding everyone this poster is from Alaska...... And she is right! There are sooo many mixed breeds that resemble coyotes that it isn;t even funny. My own dog looks JUST like one.

I don't get what living in Alaska has to do with this topic...

I didn't see the picture of the dog when I posted and it doesn't look at all like a shiba inu. I still wouldn't have pegged it as a coyote, but I have seen the horriblle breed guesses made by some shelter workers before so I guess it isn't that big of a surprise.

 

[Wolfwoman]

Quote:
Reminding everyone this poster is from Alaska...... And she is right! There are sooo many mixed breeds that resemble coyotes that it isn;t even funny. My own dog looks JUST like one.

Coyotes run with their tails down, unlike dogs and wolves who run with their tails held level or up.

Really? Looks about the same to me....

Dog...

Wolf....

Wolf...

Coyotes...

 

[isadream]

I dont leave collars on my dogs either. I had 2 german shep pups playing together-1 got its jaw hung into the other pups collar. The pup with the collar twisted the collar around the other pups mouth so it could not pull the collar out of its mouth and then it panicked in the process started stangling the other puppy. These 2 were around 4 months old when this happened and I did not think I was going to get them separated in time. It was awful.

Then several years after that I had a single puppy run underneath the towing ball on my truck. The bolt that sticks down caught his collar and he twisted and was strangling himself. Thank god I was home--after this I do not leave collars on.

 

[CityChicker]

Okay, I and my family must be crazy (no need for comments, LOL) because I just showed that picture of the dog to my husband and one of my nephews and both of them said "coyote". (In fairness, my poor hubby actually said "wolf" first, then changed to coyote after my nephew said "coyote", LOL). When I told them it was supposedly a Shiba Inu both of them laughed and said there is no way that is a Shiba.

Seriously, I would suggest not looking at the pictures posted of Shiba Inus compared to pictures of Coyotes. That is completely illogical if the dog looks nothing like the pictures posted. Look at the picture posted of the actual dog. It looks not even remotely like a Shiba Inu.

 

[Sweetfolly]

I can see how someone who'd never seen a coyote in person could look at a Shiba Inu (especially an older one who's coat wasn't in the best condition anymore, or was maybe a little skinny) and think it was a coyote. Really, the Shiba Inu, Coyote, and Dingo all look similar in terms of size, shape, and even color.

But if it was easily handle-able and friendly, than it should have been blatantly obvious that it was either domesticated or sick, and in either case it shouldn't have been released back into the wild.

isadream - I don't leave collars on my dogs either, for the same reasons. Mine are both micro-chipped, but you'd be surprised how many shelters don't even have the technology to scan the microchips! Our Shepherd got loose when we weren't home once, and we called the shelter and he was there, and when we picked him up we mentioned that he had a microchip - why didn't they call? They said they couldn't scan them, didn't have the machine!

EDIT: I disagree, CityChicker. I see at least some Shiba Inu in that dog's face, and from what I can see of the shape of the ears - I am very involved with our county animal shelter, I see a LOT of dogs, and the staff actually usually comes to me when they're not sure of the breed (although, we have an unspoken agreement around there that most of the obvious pit mixes are called "Lab mixes" - they adopt out much quicker that way), because I've complained so many times - my favorite was the gorgeous, purebred Australian Cattle Dog that they were calling an "Australian Shepherd Mix"!

I have seen a number of Shiba Inu's in person while volunteering at dog events. Remember, it's supposed to be 11 years old, and it may have been loose for quite some time. I'd expect it to be skinny and it's coat wouldn't be in great, poofy condition.