>>"In practice, of course, AC has virtually NO desire to take these animals to the shelter, as long as the person who found them is willing to take responsibility for them"
>>
>>AC may have a duty to seize an animal

No, they don't. Read that ordinance again. "Upon receiving such notice, an animal control or police officer shall take such animal and place it in the animal shelter or allow temporary custody".

Animal Control keeps a log book of lost and found animals. When you call in to tell them that you've found a dog, they put it in their log book along with your contact info. That's ALL they do, and it's all that they have a legal "duty" to do.

>>and desire all depends on the individual and the circumstances, in my work as an AC officer we could never revoke property rights until very specific procedures were followed.

Right. AFTER a dog is in the shelter, the SHELTER has to follow the 3 or 5 or 7 day hold time, depending on jurisdiction. But that hold time does NOT have to be done at the shelter. The person who found the dog can do it as well, as long as AC is notified.

>>Additionally, we never assigned rights either, but we did enforce adoption requirements and we did do health and welfare checks. Dogs that qualify for adoption also required the prospective owners to qualify for ownership which was facilitated at another shelter after the animal was transported. We did not want the public perception that we gave away the family pet to the next door neighbor.

Sure. Those are SHELTER requirements. That has nothing to do with assuming ownership of a stray that has never made it to the shelter.

>>I could leave, or recognize, the dog in the custody of an individual other than the owner which was not assigning ownership, the distinction is important because if I saw a violation I could still hold the individual who was in control of the animal responsible, but I could never violate the individual right of private property while out in the field by arbitrarily assigning new ownership.

Nobody said you could. You are arguing a claim that has never been made.

>>Also, most rescue groups were on the up and up, but I've had to take a few to court because they were animal hoarders. Not saying that this is common or that is what you all are about, but it is something we had to deal with.

Sure. No argument there. In fact, just last week a terrible case of rescue abuse went to trial right here in TN. It was even a doberman rescuer, up in Johnson City. There is still no word on what happened to 12 or 14 missing dogs. Rescuers can be idjits too!
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0.1 Peruvian rainbow boa (Amaru)
2.0 Brazilian rainbow boas (Arco, Olho)
0.3 Honduran milksnakes (Chicchan, Chanir, Hari)
1.0 Thayeri kingsnake (Coatl)
2.7 corns (Cetto, Tolosa, Uce, TBA)
1,000,000.1,000,000 other critters

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