Woman fights to find, regain custody of her German shepherd

Honolulu, Hawaii - For over a year Elzbieta Trzeciak has been searching for her beloved German shepherd, Rex.

For eight years, the pair were constant companions - together since Rex was just a puppy.

But last year, that all changed.

While Trzeciak was away in Kenya on a mission to raise money for homeless children - her two dogs, Rex and Nel, were in the care of her ex-boyfriend.

Unfortunately, while in his care, they escaped from home.

Both dogs wound up at the Hawaiian Humane Society (HHS) - a facility which should have provided safe haven to the two micro-chipped dogs.

But according Trzeciak, things did not go the way that they should have gone. 

Trzeciak was notified by AVID that the dogs were at the Humane Society - but only Nel would be coming home.

Rex had already been adopted out to another family.

When Trzeciak pleaded with the HHS for information about who had adopted her dog, she was told that the information was confidential - only that Rex had gone to a woman whose husband was in the military and deployed to Iraq.

Trzeciak pleaded with supervisors at the facility until they finally agreed to send a letter, on her behalf, to the woman who was in possession of Rex.

Tragically, that woman never responded.

Trzeciak has no idea where her dog is today.

Nor does she understand why her microchipped dog was adopted out to another family.

While she was away, he ex-boyfriend and another friend both tried to pull Rex from the Humane Society, but according to Trzeciak, they were refused.

Trzeciak alleges that the organization declined to release Rex back to people who knew him, however they did adopt him to a perfect stranger - a move which seems to fly in the face of logic, especially since these people were listed as emergency contacts with the microchip company.

From Trzeciak:

  Both guys, my ex and my friend were on AVID's perttrack file record as my ememrgency (sic) contacts.

Trzeciak is not giving up - she had established a Facebook page to help garner support for her cause.

She is also enlisting the help of a lawyer.

I contacted the Hawaiian Humane Society for their official comment on Trzeciak's allegations.

I received this response from Jacque LeBlanc, Director of Community Relations:

  

Thank you so much for your inquiry. What an unfortunate situation.

While due to privacy issues we cannot disclose the details of this particular case, I can tell you what our standard process is.

 

If a dog arrives with or without identification, we make every attempt to locate the owner to claim their animal immediately. We may keep the dog for many days while we try to reunite the animal with its owner.

 

If unsuccessful, dogs are made available for adoption.

 

In these rare cases in which the owner comes forward but the pet has already been adopted, we make efforts to contact the new adopter and try to encourage them to relinquish ownership. We also advise the original owner of the subpoena process to obtain our records to recover their dog.

It would appear that the supervisors at this facility are aware of the situation.

Sadly, there does not seem to be much offered in terms of assistance for Rex's distraught owner as the agency is standing by their privacy policy.

Please take a moment to visit the Facebook page which Trzeciak has established for Rex and also, take a moment to share his story with these photos - perhaps it will eventually reach the family who has Rex right now.

At the very least, Trzeciak deserves to know that her long-time companion is okay - that he is being well cared for and loved.

Ideally, he could be reunited with his rightful owner.

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