sheba inu released into wild as shelter said it was a coyote!

[AmoreVietato]

How terribly sad!! Poor baby. I can't imagine how you would make that mistake though! Coyotes are wild animals, and because of it, they wouldn't be outwardly friendly towards humans...it would have run away from the officer who originally captured it or at least put up a huge fight before it was captured! ( I would think anyway!)

[groar]

yeah, looks aside, the dog's behavior should have been enough to clue the shelter workers in to the fact that this was not a wild animal.

that being said, this is an excellent psa for making sure your dog has proper identification at all times! even if what happened to this dog wasn't so sensational, she could have easily been put to sleep or adopted out to someone else because she didn't have a collar or chip.

[StarlaJane]

Originally Posted by AmoreVietato

How terribly sad!! Poor baby. I can't imagine how you would make that mistake though! Coyotes are wild animals, and because of it, they wouldn't be outwardly friendly towards humans...it would have run away from the officer who originally captured it or at least put up a huge fight before it was captured! ( I would think anyway!)

Yes and no. I've known a few people with hybrid dogs ("coydogs") that were completely tame. They are illegal [to own] in a lot of places, so that may have been why the shelter workers released it. Even then, a microchip may not have helped b/c the shelter workers would have thought it to be an illegally kept animal, although the chip would at least given them the info to call the owner. But then, if they did think it to be an illegal hybrid, they wouldn't have wanted to keep it long on the premises either. It's just a sad situation all around. I am still hoping and praying that Copper makes it home safely--Go Copper!!