Question

A week ago I was under a lot of stress dealing with health issues. My daughter received a puppy for Christmas in 2018 from her dad. Last week in the heat of the moment, I gave her dog away. I did not measure the consequences of my actions. Now all my children are crying and they want their pet back. I've reached out to the person I gave our dog to and explained to her the situation. My daughter was suffering anxiety from being bullied at school and her therapist had stated that a pet could help her deal with it. Now I am afraid that me giving away her dog has her struggling with depression again. The dog has been at this person's home for 5 days. I've tried to explain that I was wrong in my doing, but she refuses to return the dog. What can I do? I have 3 kids crying and begging for their dog to come home.

Answer

Regrets do not equal rights. Generally when a person gives his/her animal away, such person has no further rights to that animal. It is so very important to carefully consider the decision to re-home an animal before, not after doing so. Many new pet “parents” are unwilling to return an animal, in part because whatever caused a person to give the animal away could happen again. I hope the dog is doing well.

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