Ziri, a rescue, came to the UK from Greece and arrived at her adopters late at night on Sunday 22 June. Unfortunately, she managed to scale the fence the following morning and then was chased by some people which drove her further away from the area. This was in Leyland PR25.
She was seen at Gymetc and people tried to catch her. She ran and was seen a few more times where people shouted her and again tried to catch her, which, as it does with all lost dogs, never mind a scared foreign rescue dog, new to the country, and only just getting here after a few days of travel and already very stressed, made her run even more. She was very nearly hit by vehicles on the road and was seen very near to the railway line. The motorway was also near. The posts going up on a local Facebook group were making it much worse for her, with people saying they would go and try to catch her, people putting sighting information on the posts as well as photos of her. So people headed to where she was. This made her even more scared. She could not settle. She was exhausted. She was terrified.
Her owner contacted us asking for help so we explained why everyone needed to leave her alone (we had already said this to people on the post but it made no difference to those trying to catch her) and she needed to be allowed to settle then we could work with her in a non threatening way. Owner removed her posts (many people had stated on them that they were going to search and try catching her) and contacted people who had messaged her telling them that she now needed to be left alone so we could work with her. At this point we didn’t know where she was but hoped she was still in the area. We headed there late at night and put a remote camera at the house (it was likely that she would retrace her steps, it was all she knew so it was possible that she would work with that) and owner had her house door open.
On June 24th, she was seen on cctv back at Gymetc and they contacted owner. We headed there and set the humane trap up with lots of appetising food including a freshly cooked hot chicken. As we had nearly finished, she was seen on the car park not far from the trap. She was heading away from where she was and if she carried on, she would be on the main road. I grabbed the chicken and circled around her, keeping my distance and then when she saw me I deliberately started to walk towards her, knowing that it would send her back, which it did. I threw some chicken and she ate it but still kept her distance. I put the rest of the chicken in the trap and as I was doing this I could see her watching me so I threw her some more. Then I walked away back to my car. I had only just got back into my car, expecting to sit there for a while, when she showed up at the trap. She didn’t take long to enter it, although hesitatingly, and once she was at the back of the trap eating, I remotely shut the trap door. She panicked at first when it shut but soon decided she was going to eat. Ziri was transported back to her new home still in the trap and safely let out once safe inside. She is definitely grounded for the foreseeable future!
Please, we say this everytime a dog becomes lost, don’t search, shout, call or chase/follow. It makes the whole situation much worse and endangers the dog’s life. Let them settle then ask for help from a trapping team (not all lost dogs need to be trapped but they do need to be handled very carefully until they are caught to keep them safe).
Thank you to the staff at Gymetc who contacted us and allowed us to put the humane trap on their land. Your help was much appreciated.
