Hey Americans - be careful with your CsV's!!

[Silvester]

This story proves again that human stupidness indeed is endless....

( If it´s really true - it´s hard for me to believe that someone can not see the difference between a shiba inu and a coyote.)

[draggar]

Originally Posted by yukidomari

I read that weeks back and it doesn't really make sense. I grew up around Shibas and they don't look like foxes or coyotes, though the one in the article was kind of piebald so not very orange as most Shiba are.

Shiba are in the 20lb range.. what Coyote is 20lbs?

So strange..

Our Finnish spitz (and the breeder gets this, too) was often mistaken for a fox or some fox-hybrid. But, they're far more plush than a shiba inu.

As for size, I think coyotes are generally in the 30-45 pound range, I can see a malinois being confused for one.

Originally Posted by rivals

Sadly for now this is what I expect would happen. I have people come up to me on the street and ask if my Husky is a wolf. Not even hybrid or anything, multiple times people have asked if he's just wolf. I don't want to know what would happen to him if he got out and the person who ended up finding him thought he was a wolf, especially someone with the authority to decide whether or not he could stay at a shelter.

All the more reason to call every shelter if you can if a dog does get loose, let them know the breed, if it's microchipped, etc.

Originally Posted by soniakanavle

I'd be so scared if he got loose and ended up at a shelter though, I don't know what they'd do. I think different branches have different policy's for 'hybrid's' At the SPCA I worked at we scanned every single animal, no matter how feral or wild for a microchip so I feel safe for that at least. But basically I'll just never let him out of my sight!!

It's good to know some shelters scan all animals but there are different scanners and if the shelter doesn't have the $$$ to buy the different scanners or the "all in one" scanner, they may not see the chip. Even if it's the same registry, they still may not see it (one animal was recently euthanized because they missed the microchip).

Originally Posted by Silvester

( If it´s really true - it´s hard for me to believe that someone can not see the difference between a shiba inu and a coyote.)

Just Google the shelter - just on the first page 4 or 5 links were to this story. Too many to be completely fabricated.

[TipTop]

Isnt it better just let the dog wearing a confortable colar with a small indentifications tag? So if he get loose someone can contact owner by phone?

[draggar]

All our dogs have collars with tags but they can fall off, get chewed off, etc..

[TipTop]

All my dogs are microchiped, use a collar with tag, and even with this tag I hand write inside the collar my name and telephone for contact.

I am pretty sure that the collar they use is safe for them and almost impossible to fall of or loose.

Hope I never need to use any of those, but we never know...
Better safe than sorry.

[draggar]

Yep, almost all of our animals are microchipped (except our two "side of the road cats" and our chickens / quail) but I'm wondering if the shelter thought it was a wild animal if they would even attempt to scan it?

There's no mention in any story if the dog was microchipped or if the shelter attemtped to scan for one.

[yukidomari]

Our dogs don't wear collars indoors. There is a risk of getting it caught on fencing, choking, etc so they only wear collars when we are heading out. If they happened to somehow escape, they would not have any collars or tags on, unfortunately.

Ours are microchipped and I can only hope that somebody would scan for them. We have never had a dog escape or get lost, though.

[Rona]

In places where our dog might be taken for a wolf, fox, coyot or whatever, she's wearing a silly shiny outfit and a red scarf. Nobody sane would take a dog 'dressed' like this for a wild animal! Plus a chip + engraved tag with phone numbers, naturally.