Several years ago here in Macomb County, MI, a local paper ran a story about two fishermen who rescued a golden lab they found swimming along a breakwall in Lake St. Clair. The paper even had a picture of the dog with the fishermen. Well, the fishermen took it to the local shelter like most people do.
The following week the paper followed up on the story thinking it turned out ok. Well, they found out the shelter euthanized the dog saying "it was sick"........
That made ME sick.....
A couple years ago a lost standard poodle wandered onto my back deck as I was lying in the sun. I called up the local animal shelter to ask if anyone had reported it lost and they said someone did call to report a lost poodle but it wasn't a guarantee that it was the one I had. (like they get hundreds of calls a day about lost standard poodles...LOL!) So they asked me to bring it in. Well, knowing what I now know about those shelters I told them my car was too small for it to fit in my passenger seat and to just give me the phone number of the family and I'd call them. They said they couldn't do that.....
So I gave them my number and finally about two hours later, the shelter called and said the family had called them again and would I be willing to call them so I said sure.
When I called them, they were already in my subdivision searching for the dog so they arrived minutes later. Turns out that dog wandered away from their yard about 4 miles away and traveled thru I don't know how many subdivisions before arriving at my place and chose my deck.
From what I have managed to piece together, the shelter won't call you back if you report a lost pet, it's up to you to keep checking with them. Had they taken the family's phone number when they initially called, they could have saved them 2 hours of searching for their dog......
I don't know why they're called "Animal Shelters" when the grizzly fact is that they're nothing but animal death facilities......
Now THAT at least is a logical explanation.