Alright, looking for some thoughts on this.....my sister found a lost dog at her local mall two weeks ago wandering the parking lot. She took the dog home and cleaned it up (to say it was flea infested would be a massive understatement) and called the local humane society, animal control and local vet offices to see if anyone had reported the dog missing. But no one had.
A few days later she happened upon an old listing online from Sept 2012 with a pic of a similar looking dog. She called the number listed and low and behold it belonged to a gentleman who lived out of state but lost the dog when he was driving through my sister's town. My sister sent the gentleman several pictures and he was able to confirm that it was indeed his dog. My sister wanted to return the dog, but the gentleman is in such poor health at this point that he told her to keep it. They've emailed back and forth every few days since so that she can give him updates.
She took the dog to the vet the next day to get checked out and was told that the dog had been severely neglected for months on end. My sister told the vet the story of the dog being abandoned and on its own for 9 months and he commented that such circumstances would explain the dog displaying very strong symptoms of neglect and abuse. She got the dog all checked out and received medicine to give the dog for the skin conditions it had developed from what the vet said were months on end of intense flea infestation.
Fast forward one week and my sister sees a lost dog sign at the stoplight near the mall with a picture that is super blurry, but looks like the dog she found. It said the dog was lost two weeks ago in the mall parking lot. One part of her wants to call these people up and make sure it's not somehow their dog, but the other part of her is very hesitant since the vet so clearly said that the dog had been neglected and abused for quite some time.
She called last night to ask what she should do, but I'm at a loss. Everyone else is telling her to keep it since it was clearly mistreated before and because she has found the owner who lost it 9 months ago. But another friend told her that legally she has to call these people since there is a chance this gentleman could have mis-identified the dog and it could be theirs.
I'm a huge animal lover (my dog is truly considered a family member and goes everywhere with us...I even bring her to work), and if I lost her I would want her returned immediately, but I'm also a little perplexed as to why these people waited 2 weeks to put up lost dog signs. And why did they allow this poor dog to live in such filth if they care so much about her.
Thoughts? It's not my call to make since my sister found her, but I'm interested in hearing what you guys think is the right thing in this case. Obviously in any other circumstance you should immediately return the dog, but does the neglect and abuse play into this at all??