Amazing Tail - Facebook Reunites Lost Dog With Owner After a Year
Posted By Freelance Writers Date: 21/04 Posted Under: Dog NewsOzzy the English Bull Terrier Reunited with his Owner after a Year
Ben Dalby from Chelmsford was devastated when his English Bull Terrier, Ozzy, went missing from his garden in April 2007. Nearly a year to the day, he’s been reunited with Ozzy thanks to the detective work of staff from Battersea Dogs & Cats Home’s Lost Dogs & Cats Line.
The dog was brought into Battersea from Romford and despite being microchipped, it proved impossible to get hold of the owner. A member of staff decided to take a look at some missing pet websites and was thrilled when she spotted Ozzy on www.doglost.co.uk. However, his owner still proved allusive and it was down to the initiative of Battersea staff that Ben was eventually tracked down via the social networking site, Facebook.
Ben was thrilled to hear that Ozzy was at Battersea and rushed down to the Home to be reunited with his dog today, saying, “Thanks to Battersea’s detective work, I’ve got Ozzy back and I’m over the moon. Little does he know that he’s got a new playmate at home, Lola the Staffordshire Bull Terrier cross, but I’m sure they’ll get on great.”
Simon Lynn, Battersea’s Head of Rehoming, said “Despite a few problems in this case, we would recommend microchipping as the best way to ensure you are reunited with your pet if it goes missing. It’s such a simple and quick procedure which causes no pain to the animal so it really is worth doing. Remember to keep your contact details up to date if you move or change telephone numbers too”.
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Monday, April 21st, 2008 at 8:25 am and is filed under Dog News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
If the microchip details had been kept up to date by the owner, all this would have avoided.
Nice work Battersea, pity that due to irresponsbile dog ownership (failing to ensure the details were up to date)you had a load of extra work for your already hard worked staff.
get your facts right and read the story on this dogs page on the doglost website.
http://www.doglost.co.uk/forum.asp?ID=9495
Yes battersea turned to doglost after 3 weeks of trying to trace the owner but it was a doglost helper that tracked him down after just under 3 hours work on the internet using facebook- HER IDEA. Whilst it was great that battersea took the time to contact doglost for their help it was a HELPER FROM DOGLOST that found him as i am sure that staff at Battersea will confirm.
This story was supplied to us direct from Battersea. It hasn’t been edited in any way.
Too many cooks etc!
What does it matter who organised the reunification as long as the dog was reunited?
If Battersea send out a press release to publicise that they did ‘X’ amount, you cannot blame the press for printing what they are told?
Graham are you something to do with Doglost? If you are, your aggressive ‘get your facts right and read the story on this dogs page on the doglost website’ shows you and Doglost up as self servers, when instead you should be glad that you have managed to get a dog back to its owner through a team effort?
Instead of this being a happy ending, it has turned into a ‘me me me me me’ type situation, do you and Doglost want a medal for doing something that Battersea and councils do on a daily basis, getting dogs back to their owners?
To make it absolutely clear, this is not about anyone “claiming the glory” for the reunion of Ben and Ossie.
Nor is it people displaying a “me, me me” attitude.
http://www.doglost.co.uk was founded in the hopes it could one day make the system work in the way in which it did on Sunday, when Ben and Ossie were reunited.
Its only motivation for securing media coverage and raising awareness of what happened is to help even more dogs be reunited with their owners.
The case is also a perfect example to other dog owners as to why it is so important to microchip your pet and keep the details up to date. A lesson others could learn.
We do not have PR budgets so when we get a chance to secure a good news story we want to do so - not to blow our own trumpets but to raise awareness and help others.
We are absolutely delighted that Battersea visited our site and used the online database of lost and stolen dogs in a bid to find an owner for Ossie, a dog they knew had an owner somewhere, and a dog they worked extremely hard to reunite with its owner.
This is the second time this year they have reunited a dog with its owner in such a way.
Everyone on our site is a volunteer and they give their own time, freely and generously, to help others.
We are so proud of their achievements and stories like this one makes everyone realise why they donate their time and spurs them on to continue.
EVERYONE involved in this case did a fantastic job and worked for the best interests of Ossie.
http://www.doglost.co.uk is just keen to share with others how its site works and just what can be achieved when people work together. Not for personal gain but for the sake of the 4000 odd dogs registered as lost or stolen.
ordinary Dog owner- you ask if Im something to do with doglost- only in the term that I am a doglost widower!! Sorry i seem aggressive its just i see how many hours are put in by a huge network of volenteers and was watching this storey unfold via my other half- who herself was one of many pulling out all the stops to try and trace the owner. Then to read that they played little part i just felt that credit was due to the ones who did the hard work. I dont wish to play down the fantastic work that Battersea do but bit of praise for the unsung heroes was also needed.
I don’t like getting involved in tit for tat (is that allowed in this pc correct world) arguments, but, I must say that as far as unsung heroes are concerned, there are fewer ‘Unsung Heroes’ than your average Local Authority Dog Warden. Many of these ‘paid’ LA officers don’t just go the extra mile, they run a marathon for a barely liveable wage. Why do they do it? For the animals. I regularly see media reports from all over the country about stray (stolen?) animals, where the Dog Warden has been instrumental in capturing/rescuing and returning the animal to it’s owner with hardly a mention of their work. Words of thanks or praise are so rare as to be a major cause of celebration when it does happen.
Graham
Thanks for replying and explaining your involvement with this case.
It really is a case of credit where it is due, which is several different areas.
One of my friends found a ’stray’ dog that when scanned and the chip details were accessed, the named owner said that the dog had been stolen in a burglary three years earlier but as it was a dog that distrubed their other dogs, they did not want it back!
That would have been a great story of a microchipped dog being reunited, but with an owner not wanting it back, it becomes a non story and as the owner did not claim the dog it went into the rehoming circuit.
My friend who is a dog warden has found several dogs that have been stolen and has reunited them direct with their owners, one dog had been stolen two months previously and another had been stolen 76 days earlier.
Some theft is opportunistic and other incidents are ’stupid’ people who find a dog and for whatever reason do not report the dog to the council, this is as bad as intentionally stealing the dog and can lead to the finder being prosecuted by the police and the council.
Why do people do this, maybe it is because the dog they find is cute or something?
Thanks for setting things straight re this dog.