FOX LAKE — The Dodge County Humane Society alleges that the Township of Fox Lake advised against assisting a missing dog that was found near the intersection of Highway AW and A Wednesday morning.
In a Facebook post which received over 2.2k reactions, the Dodge County Humane Society described a lost dog that was found by a non-local “animal lover” along the highway who reported the situation to the Dodge County Sheriff’s Department. The post included a photograph of the dog which was named Daisy.
“The Dodge County Sheriff’s Office contacted Town of Fox Lake for guidance on what to do with the dog,” the post said. “Town representatives advised to just leave her on the highway, she’d find her way home. The sheriff contacted us for advice on how to help this dog. We agreed to take her even though Town of Fox Lake doesn’t partner with us. The sheriff’s office was kind enough to give her a ride to our facility.”
The post urged residents of the Town of Fox Lake to contact their township representatives “to ask why they are no longer providing stray services and where your licensing dollars are going.”
In response to the Humane Society post, Chairman of the Fox Lake Town Board Wayne Kok made a post to the official Town of Fox Lake Facebook page to explain the township’s perspective of the situation.
“First of all we are very grateful for everyone involved in getting this dog back to it’s family,” Wayne Kok wrote before describing the timeline of events. “At 6:30 am one of our supervisors received a call that someone had picked up a stray dog. He immediately notified our police officer. Who wasn’t on duty (we only have a part time police department). He responded that he would get there as soon as possible.”
“We have been told previously by DCSD that they wouldn’t be handling stray animals. So our officer was surprised when he got there an hour later that no dog or person was there,” the post continued. “[The] dog had no tags and is not currently registered or licensed in TFL. (Owners responsibility). Would have made it easy to find out who and where it belonged. The dog was no more than a couple hundred yards from where it lived. And was only out of the house for a short time.”
The post went on to explain that the lost dog would have most likely found its way home or its owners would have soon retrieved it once they realized their pet was missing, had the Sheriff’s Department not stepped in. “Truth is in our experience the easiest and quickest way to get the animal back to its owner is to take the dog back to where it was found. Usually by this time someone is looking for it or it recognizes it’s home turf.”
Chairman Kok also noted that Facebook posts are often “sensationalized and twisted” and don’t always give every side of the story.
“We will be looking for better ways to handle situations like this in the future,” Chairman Kok concluded. “This will be an Agenda item at our August 8 Town board meeting. We welcome everyone to please attend so face to face we together can come up with solutions.”
According to the Dodge County Humane Society, the dog was found to be microchipped and returned to her family Wednesday morning.
