Dear dog lovers,

Meet Barry : the sweetest german shepherd you could possibly imagine.

3 years old, cherished by his family, travels everywhere with them, enjoys long walks in nature and sleeps in bed with his best human friend.

Barry got lost during a walk, was found and brought to an animal shelter called Het Blauwe Kruis (the blue cross).

Barry was chipped and registered in dogID, so his owner could be identified right away as address, phone number, email address are mandatory information in dogID.

The shelter called Barry's owner once, without leaving a message. Barry's owner had no clue that Barry had been found.

Desperate to find Barry, he called all the shelters in his region - including Het Blauwe Kruis. No, they said, unfortunately there was no german shepherd matching Barry's description in their shelter.

A couple of days later, Barry's owner received a message from a friend : he saw that Barry had been put up for adoption at ... Het Blauwe Kruis !

Barry's owner immediatly rushed to Het Blauwe Kruis to pick up his dog, only to hear that ... the shelter WOULD NOT RETURN HIS OWN DOG TO HIM.

They claimed that Barry was now their property as they had asked their veterinary to register Barry on the name of the shelter in the national database dogID.

A registration in dogID is NOT proof of ownership, AND only the original owner can request to transfer a registration to the name of a new owner. Barry's registration occured without his owner's knowledge or consent and without dogID sending the mandatory verification of Barry's owner's consent. Shelters can register dogs in their name, but need to respect a legal delay - which was not the case with Barry.

Even after presenting the proof of property of Barry and even after having filed a complaint and even after the intervention of a lawyer, Het Blauwe Kruis still refuses to return Barry to his owner.

Barry in the meanwhile, has been locked up 24/7 for weeks now and lost a lot of weight and muscles as he refuses to eat due to stress and grief. 

Het Blauwe Kruis, also known as "the killing station", has been previously convicted after 8 volunteers went to the press to denounce that all old and sick dogs are systematically killed (even without medical reason) just to save costs and that high prices are asked to cover the costs of the "adoption selection process". 

Shelters subsidised by the government are big money making businesses now and have sold their soul for euros. There is not the least concern for the wellbeing of the animals, only money matters. You don't need to travel to Romania or Greece to find horrific killing stations. They are right here, in the heart of Europe - Belgium. They just look a bit cleaner.

This is animal welfare in Belgium, where lost and stolen dogs can be locked up indefinitely, separated from their legitimate owner, where animal welfare legislation is not applied, where corrupt veterinaries can simply switch the name of the owner in dogID, where the mandatory (!) database dogID does NOT perform ANY verification.

Barry's case is only one of many, and proves once more that it is totally useless to chip and register your dog. Nor your dog, nor you have ANY protection in case of theft or loss. On the contrary : the chip allows thieves to keep your dog as a registration in a database is illegally abused as a 'proof of ownership' !! All it takes is a corrupt veterinary who modifies your details in the computer system and you can kiss your dog goodbye. There is no control whatsoever on veterinaries and no sanctions are applied - so they simply continue this legalized dog theft.

More details on Barry's story here and pictures of Barry here (Dutch only, sorry).

As for our stolen Maya, one of her thieves Marc Pareit has been convicted AGAIN by the criminal court of appeal. He was ordered AGAIN to return our Maya but still refuses to do so, 600 days after her theft. 

More on that in a next post. Here's a short press article.

If you want to support Barry and put an end to this legalized dog theft, please share this petition update as widely as possible and send a copy to the European Commission : sante-consult-g2@ec.europa.eu

Thank you,

Maya's mum anke and Maya's sis anaya