"Scooby" the dog abandoned along I-70 during snowstorm over MLK Day weekend symptom of larger trend
It was mostly disbelief for Jennifer Schlaf when she saw a smiling dog with heterochromia bounding up and down the Georgetown exit of I-70 while she was stuck in traffic over the MLK Day holiday.
"We thought it was such a nice dog maybe there was a mistake," Schlaf said. "Maybe a new dog owner, maybe they spaced out or something, but we knew we needed to get that dog off the road as soon as we could because it was cold."
The owner, according to Schlaf's friend, had let the dog out of their car and drove away. Several of the cars stuck in traffic tried to call the owner's number on the tag to try and get in touch with them, but all of the calls were ignored, according to Schlaf.
"We didn't know what to do, we just knew that he needed to get into a vehicle," Schlaf said.
Her friend was able to get Scooby the dog into her car and take him to the Summit County Animal Control and Shelter, where they checked his microchip and made their own attempts to get in touch with the owner. It became clear they were not interested in getting the dog back, so Schlaf raised her hand as a potential new home for the dog.
"Just the big smile he had the entire time, it just showed his intelligence and to me, his positivity, he was doing his best to interact with everyone, and he knew he needed to figure it out," Schlaf said.
Meg Leroux, Operations Manager for Summit County Animal Shelter said this sort of thing has happened before, folks driving up to the mountains to drop their pets, and then drive away. As for why, it's only a guess.
"It is more affluent up here, when you come to visit you see a ton of pet owners here, so you see a lot of dogs being well cared for," Leroux said. "That might be a part of it. "
Not only is the practice of dropping your pet on the side of the road heartless and dangerous, but it's also lazy (according to Your Reporter in the mountains Spencer Wilson). Leroux said it's a difficult decision to surrender a pet, but each situation is different. If that's the best option for your family and the animal too, at least take the steps to make sure the animal will not freeze to death or get hit by a car.
"It's heartbreaking," Leroux said. "Colorado is a socially conscious state and animals are safe in every shelter in the state...so it would be nice if they didn't dump an animal if they would take it to the closest shelter, ANY SHELTER, OUR shelter!"
Schlaf has since adopted Scooby and re-named the dog "Blue," who is now in her care.
