Owner Leaves Injured Dog on Mountain and Wants Her Back?

He should be charged with animal cruelty and forbidden to adopt another pet.

We really need an international database registry of negligent pet owners so they can weed these a-holes out.

The really sad part is the dog would probably happily return to the owner who abandoned her.
 
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Over the years my dogs have scared me a time or two when I've taken them to the hills but never to terrain that they couldn't handle physically. I can't imagine ever leaving them w/o some contingency to come back and rescue them. Longest 2 hours of my life was looking for my lost Springer after he took off after a deer.
 
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Here's the original thread on the hikers forum where she was first reported as stuck on the mountain. It's nice to see people who care, and interesting to watch as they get involved and the search parties go out. At some point, Missy's original owner joins in with excuses as to why he left her. I haven't gotten that far yet, but the resulting chaos from it caused the thread to eventually be locked.
Anyway, if you're interested and have lots of free time (it's 46 pages long) you can
read it here. ---> http://www.14ers.com/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=18&t=36893



eta: I've just read up to the part where they rescued her....very cool story. Even though I already knew the outcome, I was still excited when they announced they had found her and gotten her down. :D
 
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Calliegirl said:
Here's the original thread on the hikers forum where she was first reported as stuck on the mountain. It's nice to see people who care, and interesting to watch as they get involved and the search parties go out. At some point, Missy's original owner joins in with excuses as to why he left her. I haven't gotten that far yet, but the resulting chaos from it caused the thread to eventually be locked.
Anyway, if you're interested and have lots of free time (it's 46 pages long) you can
read it here. ---> http://www.14ers.com/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=18&t=36893



eta: I've just read up to the part where they rescued her....very cool story. Even though I already knew the outcome, I was still excited when they announced they had found her and gotten her down. :D
Click to expand...


Thanks for that. I'm just at the part where the guy turns up. **** is about to hit the fan! This is going to be good reading.

If anybody else is interested in reading it: the rescuse mission starts at about page 11 and the bottom of page 14 is the conformation of them being back all safe. More details about it and photos then follow.
The owner appears on page 22.

EDIT: Lots of awesome photos from the rescue on page 32.
 
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I'd like to join that forum just to give the people who rescued her some love via p.m. (but you can only join on Fridays). This is a statement from the guy who found her (page 46):

I will now offer my personal opinion concerning the dog and Mr. Ortolani. This is the one and only statement I will make about this and I would ask that others let this be the final word as this has turned into a very heated and passionate exchange.

According to Mr. Ortolani he was in a bad situation, and fearing for his life he made the decision to abandon his dog. I will say that I understand this. My wife and I had to abandon her as well. When we found her on Saturday we knew that we would be unable to bring her out ourselves and with extremely heavy hearts we left her on a rock knowing that she may die. That being said, this is as far as my understanding goes. Despite being forced to abandon her, we came back for her. When I left the trailhead on Monday morning I fully expected to find that she had passed away, yet I went anyway. Dozens of people devoted their time and effort to find a dog they had no connection with other than a photograph and the idea that looking for her was the right thing to do. I could make numerous other arguments but I believe that this is the heart of the issue.

Mr. Ortolani claims that he has learned his lesson, and it is my sincere hope that he has. My concern now is that this dog finds a happy and healthy home with owners that will love her and be willing to be responsible for her. It is my opinion that despite Mr. Ortolani’s great remorse he does not meet the above criteria.

I offer this as my opinion and will fight for it but I will remind everyone that it is only such, my opinion. This dog’s fate will be decided by due legal process who will hopefully act impartially to make a fair and just decision.
Click to expand...

I only read a few pages but there are too many apologists for the guy who abandoned her. He left his dog up there and didn't even try to make any serious attempt to save her. I would be moving heaven and earth to save my pet if I brought her to a dangerous place and then felt for whatever reason I needed to leave her there for a time. No excuse for Ortolani - he needs to just let her go to the people who showed that they cared more than he did. Anything else is pure selfishness and ego on his part.
 
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Calliegirl said:
Anyway, if you're interested and have lots of free time (it's 46 pages long) you can
read it here. ---> http://www.14ers.com/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=18&t=36893
Click to expand...
Thanks for posting that but... damn! I ended up spending over two hours reading through it all because I just couldn't stop! I think Wash made a great final post. He understands having to leave the dog up there initially because he and his wife ended up having to do the same thing. But the difference is... he (and many others) went back. Missy's owner simply assumed she was dead and went on with his life. No matter what he and his many apologist friends say... he gave up the right to care for her when he left her for dead. It couldn't be more clear cut in my mind.
 
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Ansciess said:
I agree, and the people who rescued her want to adopt her. It might be hard for the original owner, who says he wants a "second chance," but he needs to let her move on to people who have proven that they will care for her more than he is able or willing to. I really believe it's mostly ego on his part.
Click to expand...
I wonder how Missy feels about all of this. Regardless of how we feel about her previous owner, do you think she wants to go back to him at this point?
 
Yeah, knowing nothing else, she would want to go back to him. Dogs are loyal to a fault and crave familiarity. But I think it would ultimately be better for her, and she would have a better life, going to someone who could truly love and protect her. This guy who couldn't be bothered to try to get her off the mountain he brought her to and where she was starving and freezing to death will not provide her with the best care. Sure, if her choice were between languishing in a pound or going to an equal home, it's fine. But here are people who didn't even know her and organized her rescue, and they want her. Familiarity is comfortable, but not always the best thing. One of the rescuers said on Facebook that once he knew she was up there he could hardly sleep until he could get to her. Those who are dependent deserve someone like that to look after them.

I remember someone explaining why they didn't want children. They said they saw that there were parents who went to great lengths to help their child, if their child got sick or needed something. The person said they knew they didn't have it in them to do that. That takes some insight to realize that about oneself and admit it. This original owner is the kind of person who should not have a pet unless there's just no other better place for that pet to go, because he's a person who will not extend himself when the pet is in need. He just doesn't have the insight or courage to admit it.
 
It does seem odd to me that he wouldn't check to see if it was dead, even under the assumption it was. I guess not everyone would want to see it dead though, so maybe he was just more certain of it and more emotional about it than I'm imagining. I don't really climb mountains and have no idea what the chances actually were... and the latter is just common for me.
 
Apparently the very next day after he left her he posted "RIP Missy" on his Facebook. Rather than a plea to help rescue his dog.

To me that's just not wanting the hassle of trying a rescue.
 

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