Judge orders dog returned to its original owner

This story has been playing out in Toronto for a while. I have to agree with the judge on this one.

http://www.torontosun.com/News/TorontoAndGTA/2005/04/22/1008210-sun.html

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AFTER SIX months, it was love at first sight. Pluto, a 6-year-old Dalmatian, was reunited last night with his owner Demetre Papadopoulos after a small claims court ruled that he shouldn't have been given to a new owner by the Toronto Humane Society.

When Papadopoulos came into view, Pluto, who had been subdued, began to whimper loudly and wag his tail madly.

"He is my baby and he's coming back to me," Papadopoulos said. "I feel so young. I love him so much. He has been six months away from me. The first thing we are going to do is play." The former painter who lives alone on disability insurance says his once jet-black hair turned grey since he lost ownership of Pluto.

AILING GRANDMOTHER

Papadopoulos went to Greece in October 2004 for a month to visit his ailing grandmother and paid his accountant, David Dubois, to care for Pluto.

The English-speaking dogsitter got fed up with Pluto, who according to Papadopoulos only understands commands in Greek, and took the pooch to the pound.

Dubois claimed he had legal title for Pluto and signed a surrender form over to the humane society.

GOOD FAITH

Five days before Papadopoulos returned home, the humane society allowed Pluto to be adopted by Peter Tustin, who refused to return the dog to his owner.

Tustin's lawyer argued Pluto was "chattel" and because the dog was in the possession of the humane society it was purchased in good faith.

"Dubois had possession of chattel and decided to relieve himself of that possession. The human society obtained valid title with surrender papers," lawyer Pell Capone said.

The court ruled the humane society can't transfer a title that it never owned.

Tustin plans to appeal.

Humane society president Tim Trow says he is appalled.

"It brings into doubt every adoption and endangers animals' lives."

I'm glad Pluto is back with his owner. Maybe. Obviously the owner has bad judgement on who to leave his dog with. But something that doesn't make much sense is the whole:

The English-speaking dogsitter got fed up with Pluto, who according to Papadopoulos only understands commands in Greek, and took the pooch to the pound.

Wouldn't the owner have given the commands to the dog-sitter?

"It brings into doubt every adoption and endangers animals' lives."

I think that this is a rare case. I don't think it is every day that dogs are taken to the humane society by dog-sitters. Do they?

Even if the dog only srpoke greek, in a month a good dog walker would be able to train the dog however he wanted. I had a dog for a week and I had her doing whatever I said...

i watched this story on Global, killed me watching the original owner, he was soo sad for having lost his dog.
Yes, he had bad judgement on who to leave the dog with. He doesn't have alot of close family in cnada, if any, if i can recall correctly. The accountant was in the wrong all the way.
I can't beleive the new owner is going to appeal this. It sickens me.
We are now fighting over pets like we fight over our children.

I too am glad the original owner got him back.This has been his dog for 6 years.

Prin,easier said then done.How many people come here from a foreign country and don't speak a word of english?It takes them more then a month to learn it.I know it took my parents more then a month.A dog is no different.

It's a good thing Tron not only learned his commands in German,but english also.

It's a good thing Tron not only learned his commands in German,but english also.

Somebody once posted on the bulletin board at work looking for a new home for their dog. They cautioned that the dog only understood French. I pondered on adopting it.... I always wanted to learn French.

Somebody once posted on the bulletin board at work looking for a new home for their dog. They cautioned that the dog only understood French. I pondered on adopting it.... I always wanted to learn French.

"Le Woof!"
"I think he wants to go out, but I don't know french!"

lol-- you lauch but I had a dog once that only listened to "joual". He was trained for dog shows so he was really crazy trained, but in joual. If you don't know what joual is, it's hick french. Mispronounced and VERY hard to understand.

Like instead of "toi" pronounced "twah", he understood "toi" in joual-- like Tway. We tried forever to get him to understand english but he was so trained in french.. Here's a minority group of english people in the country talking to their dog in joual... :D