Southern CA dog owners beware

[wyorancher]

My dog Jake was taken from the back of our pickup in Pomona, CA by SPCA. Our dog had water, food, shelter, carpet to lay on, and a chain short enough that he could get into the insulated shelter from the sun yet not be endangered from hanging himself.

The Inland Valley SPCA took our dog when we left the pickup for less than 2 hours. OK, OK, I understand mistakes can be made. They tried to rectify their mistake by canceling all charges and returning our dog Jake, who was a show dog, with any fees or charges. There was no question how Jake was being treated. However, if they take any animal I would expect that animal get at least the same quality of treatment they were getting before being in SPCA custody.

When they picked up Jake they injured his sinus cavity and the blood vessels within the sinus cavity. They then exposed Jake to Spinal Meningitis. Jake almost died just being in their custody less than 3 hours. Jake had to undergo an IV for over 30 hours after X-rays, urine, saliva, blood, and a spinal tap finally indicated he had contacted spinal meningitis while in SPCA custody. Shameful. Jake will never be in the show ring again. He may have permanent brain damage. Our vet was outraged by the damage they did to Jake's sinus by untrained drivers that pickup animals. My wife almost vomited from the stench and filthy conditions at the facility when she picked up Jake.

We have quite a few great shelters in Wyoming that are run by very qualified people and they keep their facilities clean and free of disease. Apparently there is no profit in picking up stray animals in the Pomona, CA area so grabbing a high quality pedigree show dog allows them some profits. Shameful.

I suppose this will be dumped by moderators which will be a shame because dog owners in the Pomona, CA area need to be aware of the terrible conditions in the Inland Empire SPCA.

[kian]

Mel I won't dump it, I am shocked and horrified this happened to Jake. You worked so hard to gain his trust and now this, I am just shaking my head that the SPCA would treat a dog this way. I didn't know you had planned to show him, I thought he was a ranch dog, regardless NO DOG or animal should ever endure the conditions and treatment Jake did. I can't imagine the shock you and your wife went through to get Jake back and see the conditions.

To have his sinus cavitity injured he obviously put up a fight and they muzzled him way too tight.

What was the reason they gave you for picking him up?

I don't leave my dogs anywhere where this might happen, there is a high theft rate for Purebred dogs everywhere. I already have had my Showdog Ice gain the attention of some thieves, glad I was right there. Are you back in Wyoming now? How is Jake doing?

[wyorancher]

From what we can gather is that some lady attempted to steal Jake from the back of our pickup. Someone saw this and called security. When security arrived and stopped her she started telling them it was only because the dog was mistreated. Instead of security calling us, the phone number was on Jake's collar, but may not have been able to get to it because he is pretty possessive of that pickup with his shelter, carpet and all. Security just called SPCA. I suspect security didn't want to baby sit Jake and that was the easy way out. However, they had to stay with our truck because the lady tried to steal the pickup slip that SPCA taped on the window. A few minutes after that we arrived but Jake was already taken by SPCA. We drove over to the SPCA but we had to wait for the truck, then for him to be examined by the vet, who was the supervisor. She then came out and checked out our truck and admitted there was a mistake. However, Jake was in their custody for a couple of hours by the time we got him back and that was all it took. They have police powers in CA and had written us a cite and issued a court date. The supervisor dropped all of the charges and fees and released Jake back to us.

He is on the mend now. We originally thought he had picked up distemper from the kennel. All of Jake's shots were up to date including a rattle snake shot. He had an examination and kennel cough shot just prior to the trip. He had a very swollen sinus and could not breath out of his nose. Then he lost all mobility. Slowly at first, then more rapidly. He was on an antibiotic but kept getting worse. Once he was off food and water we knew it was very serious. They put him on an IV and then did every test they could on Jake.

Jake just finished the last of his antibiotics yesterday and all blood is back to normal although vet didn't want to do another spinal tap because it is so traumatic for the dogs. Vet put us down on their emergency calendar so day or night if we have any more problems we can get a hold of them and bring him right in.

Vet also said that it is possible that the brain will re-route directions and Jake may get back to complete normalcy. Sure hope so.

We aren't finished with SPCA yet. We are going to contact the cities that particular SPCA works with and put some pressure on them to at least get some proper training for their drivers when picking up animals.