A concerned citizen called and informed the Variety yesterday that her friend found the dog at the Garapan Fishing Base on Wednesday last week.
“My friend took the dog to the animal hospital for care and treatment but we learned that PAWS picked it up from the hospital,” the caller said.
She said her friend already found somebody to adopt the dog so they called PAWS again to ask about the whereabouts of the animal but got no information about it.
“We learned that PAWS released the dog to the streets and we could not find it anymore. It is very irresponsible for PAWS to do so,” the concerned citizen said.
PAWS through one of its volunteers explained that they have nothing to do with the matter and they were not involved in it.
PAWS said it went out of its way to get information and found that the Paradise Island Animal Hospital was closing for three weeks and a woman was kind enough to pick up the dog and bring it home instead of leaving it behind in a cage.
PAWS said the woman who took the dog home had to return the dog to where it was found — the Garapan Fishing Base — because her other dogs fought the new dog all the time.
PAWS said the woman left food for the dog and hoped that the owner would find it at the Garapan Fishing Base.
“PAWS did not have anything to do with the dog, nor was it responsible for ‘releasing the dog to the streets’ as reported,” PAWS said.
“We would just like to make the story clear that PAWS is not involved in it,” the volunteer added.
PAWS, which is run by volunteers and relies mainly on donations and help from the community, said it has been doing a lot of good things and spending thousands of dollars in taking care of these animals for medical bills for vaccination, neutering and spaying, food expenses, de-worming and treatment for fleas and ticks, and goes out of its way to find good foster homes for the animals.
Established in March 1993, PAWS is a CNMI non-profit corporation dedicated to the health, care, welfare, and population control of cats and dogs in the commonwealth and to the education of the public for animal care and rights. For more information, call 285-PAWS (7297).
