John Hult

jhult@argusleader.com

►Update: Family thanks humane society, adoptive owners for returning family pet

Janeen Rang wishes she had reached out sooner.

By the time the Turner County woman called the Sioux Falls Area Humane Society to ask if they had picked up Jake, her 5-year-old yellow Labrador mix, the dog was gone.

The Rangs had talked to neighbors around their farm north of Parker to ask if they’d seen Jake and hoped he would turn up. After six days, they reached out beyond their neighbors, but even then, they didn't expect to hear that he had made it to Sioux Falls.

“We called our vet, we called the (Turner County) Sheriff’s Department, but it never dawned on me to call the Humane Society,” Rang said.

Jake was adopted Feb. 8 – one day before the Rang family reached out to the shelter.

The Humane Society’s director says the situation is unfortunate, but she said the shelter held Jake for seven days before putting him up for adoption. That’s four days longer than city ordinance requires the agency to hold animals without tags or microchips (Jake had neither), and two days longer than it’s required to hold animals with an ID tag.

“It would be really cool if we could keep animals forever, but we can’t,” said Kori Baade, director of the Sioux Falls Area Humane Society. “It’s just an unfortunate situation all around. It’s not what we like to see.”

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The dog caught the attention of a passing driver at Wall Lake corner on Highway 42, 11 miles from the Rang farm, on Feb. 2.

“He was worried about it getting hit on the road,” Baade said.

The Humane Society checked with its contracted local law enforcement agencies to find out if anyone had reported a yellow Lab missing, but they didn’t find anything, Baade said. The dog was adopted on the first day he was available.

Rang suspects the dog tried to follow her adult son to work in Sioux Falls on Feb. 2. The son had been watching the farm while they were on vacation.

The Rang family pleaded with the agency to call the adopters – family members visited the shelter three times and posted about the situation on Facebook – but the employees refused.

Baade said the family that adopted the dog did so legally, and that its privacy policy stops the shelter from giving out the name.

Rang still wishes they’d reach out so the new owners know they’d chosen an already beloved pet.

She’s not upset with the Humane Society for following its adoption procedures, but she thinks anyone who adopted a beloved pet would return him and wishes the shelter would at least give the new owners a chance to do so.

“They’ve only had him a day or two. We had him since he was a puppy,” Rang said. “Jake’s been a member of our family for five years. We love him and we miss him.”

John Hult is the Reader's Watchdog reporter for Argus Leader Media. Contact him with questions and concerns at 605-331-2301, 605-370-8617. You can tweet him @ArgusJHult or find him on Facebook at Facebook.com/ArgusReadersWatchdog