MISSION, Kan. (WDAF) — The owner of a lost dog that ended up at a Kansas pet rescue says she’s having a hard time getting her pet back.
Jessica Palacio said her dog, named Capone, got loose a couple of weeks ago and is now at Unleashed Pet Rescue in Mission, Kansas. She said she has proven the dog is hers, but the pet rescue is keeping him.
“It hurts because I don’t know if he’s OK,” said Palacio.
She has been worried about her 3-year-old dog since he ran away just before Easter. Palacio said Capone needs daily medicine for a serious skin condition.
She and her family spent hours looking for him and posted lost dog alerts in her neighborhood group.
Palacio was relieved when she got an email from Unleashed Pet Rescue.
“April 4, Easter Sunday, I get an email from Unleashed Pet Rescue telling me that they have my dog,” Palacio said. “Feel free to come pick him up. There’s going to be some fees attached.”
After talking to someone at Unleashed on the phone, Palacio said she went to get Capone on April 8, with the $150 they said she’d need to get her dog back.
‘They said he is not available … I mean, I got like 15 different stories as to why I couldn’t take my dog,” Palacio said. “When I had to go home and tell my daughter we couldn’t get the dog back, she was upset because that’s her baby. He’s everybody’s baby, you know?”
WDAF left messages Monday and again Tuesday for Unleashed’s owner, Danielle Reno, to comment, but they went unanswered. When asked about the dog, employees at Unleashed said Reno was the person to talk to, but added that she wasn’t there.
Palacio said she is not able to go back to the pet rescue because an employee called the police after she demanded they release her dog. She said officers who responded told her they could not do anything to help her because it is a civil matter and that if she went back to Unleashed, she would be arrested for trespassing.
“Just give me back my dog,” Palacio said. “I don’t understand why this is a hard issue for you guys. I guess they thought I would give up, but now I’m going to fight. I want my dog home.”
Late Wednesday, Reno responded to WDAF, saying the dog had been neglected but that she has tried to get the dog back to its owner.
