This happened in Colorado a few days ago. A dog owner hiked up to 14K with his German Shepherd. The dog got hurt somehow, and the owner hiked back home. And did nothing.

Fast forward one entire week. A young couple came across the poor dog -- organized a rescue effort -- and got the dog down the next day -- thanks to seven total strangers, no thanks to its owner.

The dog owner got wind of the happy ending -- and actually came forward, asking for his dog back!

Watch the ABC News video HERE.

Why can't they put people like that down, hopefully he gets a massive bill.

Unbelievable ......I could never do that to my pets....never

B2W

"shameful and irresponsible" just doesn't get it.


its stories like this that justify my black heart towards humans.

jail time??? howzabout azz whuppin?

I would say finders keepers loser weepers law should come in to effect. Since the owner admitted to leaving the dog up on the mountain. The owner might not have been able to afford getting the dog to a doctor and his punishment has already been handled by the press by public scorn and ridicule.
He is on every local humane society,animal control list so he will never be able to get a pet again.
Terry

Edited by socal-nomad on 08/20/2012 09:02:54 MDT.

As horrible as it is to abandon his dog, the truly unbelievable thing is that the owner would even come out wanting his dog back! I hope he gets a big fine -- and mandatory training to learn the meanings of responsibility and shame. He obviously hasn't a clue about either.

"Shameful and Irresponsible Dog Owner?"

Why the question mark? There's no question at all. And now we're hearing from people who don't even hike about how dogs shouldn't be allowed on 14ers, it's animal abuse to take them, etc. One person wrote that dogs shouldn't be taken over 11K!

For anyone interested in following this story, the rescue team setup a FB page.

https://www.facebook.com/TBOLRescue

Randy N - They have dogs in Tibet and Nepal -- where 14K is merely the plateau. Not an expert in dogs, but my take is that dogs -- like humans -- are fine at elevation -- but they too require acclimation. Likely the acclimation is different between dogs and us -- as well as different between dogs individually. Easy does it...

Randy M - thanks for the link. Folks can cut and paste, or simply click HERE for the Randy's FB link.

If anyone is interested in reading the original thread on 14er where the owner came forward to claim the dog, here's the link:

http://www.14ers.com/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=35&t=36893&start=252 (7th post down by aortolani14)

Where are the people-eating bears when you really need one? Too bad this sorry excuse for a human didn't run into one!

He would have just thrown his dog at the bear in self-preservation.

Barry, the real irony is the dog would likely have protected her master -- or die trying! Sigh....