CUMBERLAND — Police continue to investigate Friday’s breaking and entering at the Allegany County Animal Shelter, according to a statement released Wednesday.
The Cumberland Police Department said two unidentified individuals were captured on the facility’s security cameras taking a dog overnight Friday.
Surveillance photos posted to the police department’s social media show a woman and man around various doors at the shelter.
“The case remains under active investigation,” Lt. Barry Fickes wrote. “Additional details will be released as they become available through the department’s press releases.”
Animal control officers originally picked up the animal in the area of Holland Street near Shriver Avenue, according to Jodi Eircih, executive director of the Allegany County Animal Shelter.
Shelter staff received a call from a staff member at Braddock Middle School on Friday reporting a dog running at large and was concerned about it getting hit by a vehicle, as well as children walking home as school was preparing to let out, Eirich said.
“Animal control officers responded and couldn’t find the dog,” Eirich said. “They checked all the streets around Braddock.”
Eirich said the shelter received a second call regarding the dog later in the evening and officers were able to pick up the animal.
“It is a very nice dog,” she said. “It looked healthy and it was friendly — it had been taken care of.”
The shelter’s policy is to post a picture of the animal on its lost and found page and put it in a kennel for the night.
“It felt violating and eerie watching the (surveillance) video,” Eirich said. “It was obvious that it was someone that had familiarity with the shelter.”
Eirich said that the woman was desperate to get her dog back. She got in a back door, took the dog and left the shelter.
Facing public criticism that the shelter takes animals and then charges a large fee to be reunited with their owners is not reality, Eirich said.
“The reality is we have to charge for owners to reclaim their pets because we have to pay for an officer to respond to the complaint, pay to vaccinate the animal and a daily kennel fee,” Eirich said. “We have to do these things to protect the dogs.”
In this case specifically, it would have been $35 for the pit bull to be reunited with its owner the next day, Eirich said.
“The reason why we pick up stray animals is to protect them, bring them to safety and reunite them with their owners,” Eirich said. “We can’t have animals roaming around. There are laws and a county code” that must be followed.
“We are not interested in keeping people’s animals,” Eirich said. “We have no desire to keep people’s animals and adopt them out. We want to reunite them with their owners — as long as they are responsible pet owners.”
Eirich said the only time an animal would be seized is if it appears malnourished or shows obvious signs of abuse or neglect.
As of Monday, Eirich said the shelter as approximately 125 dogs in need of adoption.