Owner says microchipped dog wrongly sent to pound

A woman says she feared she would never see her missing dog again after a vet sent him to a dog pound, incorrectly claiming he was not microchipped.

Tanya Tennant said she eventually had to pay a £65 charge to get Luca back, after he went missing from Dymock, Gloucestershire, on 14 January.

She said she was contacted by a woman who had found him on a road and taken him to a vet, but when Tenant called them, they told her he had been collected by Worcestershire Regulatory Services (WRS), who deal with stray dogs.

A Vets Now spokesperson said it empathised with the distress caused to Tenant, and its teams follow "established procedures" for unaccompanied pets.

"The woman meant well," Tenant said. "But the people at fault are the vets."

"I was crying my little eyes out. I thought I would never see him again.

"If that woman hadn't phoned me to say where she'd taken him, I might have never got him back."

She said she is not happy with how she was spoken to by customer service at WRS, and does not know why she was charged.

She was reunited with Luca at Malvern Police Station on 16 January.

The Local Democracy Reporting Service said it had seen paperwork to confirm Luca is registered with Petlog, the UK's largest government-compliant microchip database.

The Vets Now spokesperson said: "Our teams always aim to act in the best interests of animals brought into our care, following established procedures when a pet appears to be unaccompanied.

"This includes checking for a microchip using approved scanners and, where no chip is detected, or the chip hasn't been registered, ensuring the animal is transferred safely to the appropriate local authority so it can be reunited with its owner as quickly as possible."

WRS provide the dog warden service for Malvern Hills District Council, a spokesperson for the council said: "The [£65] charge is set based upon the government's statutory fine, and additional fees cover the cost of boarding and looking after stray dogs."

They added that the welfare of dogs was the "top priority" of the WRS team.

"Within an hour of seizing the dog from the vets, our wardens were able to identify the dog, notify its owner and start the usual procedure of returning the pet," the spokesperson said.

"We understand the distress that comes with losing a dog, and our WRS customer services team always endeavour to respond to calls with the utmost professionalism and consideration for the situation."

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