Woman says missing dog was adopted by someone else

Credit: WPXI.com

Credit: WPXI.com

A Latrobe, Pennsylvania, woman says her dog went missing and then was adopted by a new family.

Sarah Harvey said relatives waited weeks to tell her that her pug, Winston, ran away. He he ended up at the Westmoreland County Humane Society, he was adopted by a new family.

State law says facilities can hold found dogs for 48 hours, although if they're micro chipped or licensed, they often hold them longer as they try to track down owners. Winston was not licensed or micro chipped, so there was no proof of ownership.

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"We’ve had him since I was 14, so he lives at my dad's,” Harvey said. “It’s not like I live somewhere and dropped him off at my dad's to watch him and never called and checked on him. He lives there, that's his home.”

Harvey is a college student and works full-time, goes to so she hasn't been able to move Winston from her father's place to to where she's living now, WPXI reported.

Winston was adopted in less than two weeks.

“It makes me sad. Dogs have feelings,” Harvey said. “I can only imagine how he feels that he’s in a completely different home with nobody that he knows, when he’s been with (my family) for five years.”

“If I can’t pay the refund for the adoption or pay even more, I’d like to just see him one more time and make sure he's in a happy home,” Harvey said.

Harvey said she never knew her dog wasn't licensed, but that after dealing with this, it’s a good lesson. Her best advice is to get your dog licensed, chipped and tagged.

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