Oh Shit!!

Council Snatched Pet Dogs As Owner Sat On The Toilet

“I WAS running and thought `oh my goodness’ I really need the toilet’,”said Patricia Abel, a 28-year-old out for a job on the Darwin foreshore. “I’ve been unwell and had a funny tummy, probably because of changing water, so I was quite desperate to get to a toilet and it could not wait until I got home. I’d jogged past the last public park toilet and it was a few hundred metres back, so rather than take Pepper all the way back with me I tied her to a bollard thinking she would be fine for a few minutes. I just thought I wouldn’t be able to make it in time if I had to drag Pepper all the way back to the toilet with me. By the time I got back she was gone.’
“I was in a panic. At first I thought I’d tied her on a different bollard, but after running up and down a few times I could not find her.”
Pepper had been taken by the Darwin Council dog catcher. It cost her $330 to get her dog out of the pound. She adds: ”I spoke to the dog catcher and she was a little apologetic when I explained my situation, but at the same time she said I should have taken Pepper into the toilet with me. I just thought `really, is that really the right thing to do? Obviously the dog is very well looked after, she is registered and microchipped, so I would have thought that their first course of action would have been to wait for a little while until the owner showed up. But instead they took her.”
Council general manager Community and Cultural Services John Banks said: “After waiting in excess of 15 minutes with the unaccompanied dog, our ranger acted in accordance with the City of Darwin By-laws. In this incidence Council has taken the extenuating circumstances into consideration and will not be pursuing the fine.”