DORAL, FLA. (WSVN) - A South Florida woman has finally been reunited with her furry friend after a dispute with animal services.
The ordeal started on Friday, when Baby, Beatris Gonzalez’s 1-year-old Afghan hound, wandered off from home.
Gonzalez tracked Baby down to Miami-Dade Animal Services in Doral but ran into many hurdles trying to retrieve the dog.
“My dog has been through hell and back, and now she’s in a shelter,” said a tearful Gonzalez. “My dogs are my life. Everybody that knows me, knows that.”
The shelter said the rabies vaccination certificate brought in was for a male dog, and the Afghan hound they had was a female.
The breeder paperwork also showed Baby had a distinctive tattoo, while the shelter claimed the dog they had did not have a tattoo.
“Unfortunately, some of the information Beatris provided conflicted with the information that the department has on file,” said Miami-Dade Animal Services Chief of Operations Kathleen Labrada. “This dog has no tattoo, so of course there were a number of steps that the department needed to go through to ensure that this dog is being restored to its rightful owner.”
Miami-Dade Animal Services decided to have a meet and greet to see how the dog would react to the owner.
“So, obviously, as a department, it’s our responsibility to do our due diligence to make sure we are reuniting the pet with the person that is claiming to be the actual owner of the pet,” said Chief of Shelter Services Lorna Mejia-Lopez.
After the meeting, the department allowed Gonzalez to take possession of the dog.
“She licked me all over. She was nudging at me. It was a good reunion” said Gonzalez.
Gonzalez said she understands the department has certain protocols to prevent pets being released to the wrong owner.
“I do feel they were protecting the dog, but I feel they were vague in telling me, hey, you’re giving us the wrong paperwork,” she said. “They were just wanting me to figure everything out on my own and maybe that’s part of their protection.”
Gonzalez decided to microchip Baby to prevent a misunderstanding from happening again.
Miami-Dade Animal Services advises all owners get their pets microchipped and to make sure the information is up-to-date.
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