Falls animal control officers finding new fraud with owners reporting pets as strays

Rick Pfeiffer -, Niagara Gazette, Niagara Falls, N.Y.
·3 min read
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May 6—It's a dilemma facing animal shelters and rescue organizations across the country.

And Niagara County animal welfare groups have found that they aren't immune either from an overcrowding crisis that has exploded over the past two years.

"We know that when people are looking to surrender their pets, because they can't care for them, they get the same answer over and over from us, we're full," SPCA of Niagara Executive Director Amy Lewis said. "We had a family that experienced just the worst financial hardship recently. It was so bad that (one family member) walked 6 miles to the shelter to surrender their two dogs."

But the shelter had no room for the pets. Shelter staff set up a Go Fund Me page to help the family care for their dogs.

"But we can't do that in every case," Lewis said.

Ok, they've had everything for a while now. We should be good. Have a good weekendThe desperation of some pet owners has even led to a disturbing new type of fraud in the Falls. According to Falls police, some pet owners have begun making fraudulent stray dog complaints.

The way the fraud works is people claim they have found a stray dog and call for the Falls Police animal control officer to come pick it up. Under a soon to expire contract with the city, the SPCA of Niagara is obligated to take the animal.

But police and shelter investigators are discovering that some of the "stray dogs" are actually owned by the people who have claimed to have found them.

"I know that has been the case, but some of these people are in such desperate situations," Lewis said. "It puts an incredible strain on us, an immense strain. But people aren't left with a whole lot of options."

This week, Falls Animal Control Officer Donny Booth filed animal cruelty charges against a pet owner who reported her own dog as a stray.

A 44-year-old Falls woman was charged with second-degree offering a false instrument for filing and abandonment of an animal.

The woman reported finding a tan pit bull without a collar wandering outside, in the area of 25th Street and Pine Avenue on April 21. Booth responded to the call and she told him the she didn't know who the dog belonged to and said she had never seen the animal before.

The animal control officer took the pit bull to the SPCA's Lockport Road shelter and it was it was processed in as a stray.

However, Booth later discovered that the pit bull had a name, "Riley" and was actually the woman's pet. Riley had been living with the woman and she had posted photos of the dog on her Facebook page weeks before she claimed to have found the animal.

While Lewis said that type of fraud strains her shelter's resources to the breaking point, she's not sure punishing the pet owners is the best solution.

"What are (the pet owners) supposed to do?" Lewis asked. "Open up their back door and let (their pet) run out? Tie them to trains tracks? That's what we don't want them to do."

Lewis said she has been meeting with her staff to search for solutions to help families facing economic challenges to to keep their pets.

"We're discussing how we can help with pet retention," she said. "There's a need for lower cost medical care. We've been looking to hire a full-time veterinarian for awhile."

But Lewis said as her agency continues to exit its role in municipal animal control, cities, towns and villages across Niagara Country are going to need to confront the growing crisis of overcrowded not-for profit shelters and an ever-escalating number of pet owners who simply can no longer afford their animals.