What would you pay for safe return of a lost pet?

Dizzy

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#1
A woman in the uk is offering £10000 for safe return of her lost gsp, believed to be stolen. She has remortgaged her house to raise the money. That's $15800 by the way.

I've been on the page on Facebook awhile. It was £3000 originally.. But she's increased it.


Not sure what I'd pay...


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[FONT=.HelveticaNeueUI]http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2270609/Distraught-dog-owner-remortgages-house-offer-10-000-reward-champion-pointer-stolen.html[/FONT]
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A distraught woman whose champion dog was stolen has remortgaged her home so she can offer a £10,000 reward to help find her beloved pet - one of the largest sums believed to have been ever offered.

Dawn Maw, 42, is offering the five figure sum to anyone with information that leads her to four-year-old dog Angel.
The German short-haired pointer was taken from a car park near Barnsley, South Yorkshire, while Mrs Maw was walking her and her three other dogs last month.
 

PWCorgi

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#2
Absolutely everything that I could possibly manage.

Unless it was Frodo, then I'd pay the person to keep him. :p

(joking, of COURSE!)
 

Dizzy

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#3
My other half said he'd pay someone £20 to keep Fred :D

I wouldn't risk losing my home over my dog..... I don't think it would even occur to me to do that.... I'd certainly spend what I could though.

Let me clarify, if I owned my own home not sure I'd mess with the mortgage to find a dog. If something came up where I couldn't keep a dog in the home, I'd move in a heartbeat.
 

meepitsmeagan

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#4
I love my dogs, but $15,000?! :yikes:

It would be devastating to have a dog get lost or stolen, but I don't know if I could fork over $15,000. Call me heartless.

I couldn't financially ruin my family for the return of my pet, unfortunately. Though, I've never been put in that position, so I'm not sure how far I would go. I hope I never have to find out.
 

milos_mommy

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#5
Whatever I could reasonably afford. Putting my child, my future, even other pets, in financial jeopardy to get a lost/stolen pet back wouldn't happen. What happens if this woman gets the dog back, but can't afford her home anymore? If it's reasonable for her to downsize or something and bring the dog with her, OK, but if she's making an emotionally-charged financial decision, she may get the dog back just to end up rehoming him because she gave up her home to do it.

I might do something like sell my car for an older, less reliable model....sell "extras" etc. in order to come up with reward money, but at the point where it's going to effect the quality of life of the pet if I even get it back...not sure it'd be worth it.
 

DJEtzel

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#6
I worked for a surgeon two summers ago putting up lost dog fliers because his Weim was stolen or ran away... He was offering a 5,000 USD reward if I recall correctly and paid me $200 to put up laminated fliers he ordered. :yikes:
 

BostonBanker

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#7
That. At least.

I don't own a home, I don't have children I need to worry about, and I have options I could follow through on to make my expenses less month to month.

I'd be more than willing to go into debt for either of my dogs, max out credit cards, whatever. The thought of either of them taken and me not knowing if they were safe and happy and cared for fills me with an incredible panic.

Granted, Gusto - they'd probably be paying me to take him back.
 

Shai

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#8
I don't know...I mean on one hand I would do whatever I needed to in order to get my dogs back but I can't help but have a "negotiating with terrorists" mentality about it...offering a reward is one thing but $15k seems more like publicizing an incentive to steal dogs...for that person to repeat or for others to copycat...
 

AdrianneIsabel

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#9
I don't know...I mean on one hand I would do whatever I needed to in order to get my dogs back but I can't help but have a "negotiating with terrorists" mentality about it...offering a reward is one thing but $15k seems more like publicizing an incentive to steal dogs...for that person to repeat or for others to copycat...
This.
 

Taqroy

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#10
For me this goes in the same category as "How much would you spend to keep your dog alive?"

And my answer is however much I could reasonably afford without being financially ruined. Because I have a husband and two other dogs and I can't be bankrupt and take care of them too. But, that question was the incentive for me to have an emergency fund that is specifically for human/dog catastrophe. So we could afford a pretty substantial amount before we had to give up.
 

BostonBanker

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#11
I don't know...I mean on one hand I would do whatever I needed to in order to get my dogs back but I can't help but have a "negotiating with terrorists" mentality about it...offering a reward is one thing but $15k seems more like publicizing an incentive to steal dogs...for that person to repeat or for others to copycat...
From the standpoint of "my dogs are both standing behind me right now looking for dinner", I agree completely. If it were Meg or Gusto who had been taken? Screw it, I'll negotiate with anyone to get them back.
 

Flyinsbt

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#12
Whatever it took, probably. I doubt I'd offer that much, because I don't think ever increasing amounts of reward are going to bring the dog back. But if I thought it would get my dog back, I might well do it.

If I were to find this person's dog, btw, I wouldn't accept that much reward. I might be willing to accept a reward, but not more than the owner could easily spare.

I did take a $100 reward from someone once, and felt a little bad about it, because I hadn't looked for the owner. I found the dog wandering in the road on the 4th of July, so I caught it and took it to work with me at a veterinary hospital. Settled the dog in, and left a note for one of the receptionists to call animal control to pick it up the next morning. When I got to work the next day, it turned out the owner had called first thing in the morning looking for their dog, picked it up, and left me a $100 check. Since all I did was catch the dog, scan it for a microchip, and put it in a cage with some kibble, I didn't really think I deserved it, but I was pretty poor, so I cashed the check anyway.

Rambling point being, decent people will be more than happy with a relatively small reward, if any. The mercenary types might need a little more, but after a few thousand dollars, you're really going to run into diminishing returns.
 

Sit Stay

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#13
I would not be willing to financially ruin myself, my SO, or my family (etc) over a missing dog, but I would offer as large a reward as I could manage. If Quinn was stolen tomorrow I'd probably start at a $500 reward but be totally willing to go beyond. I would probably even go to the point of borrowing money if I didn't have enough cash to front. So in short - I guess I would be willing to take some hits financially, but I really don't think I'd go as far as this lady did.
 

Shakou

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#14
Whatever I could reasonably afford at the time, but $500 I think is more then generous. Honestly though, I think any amount of money would be insentive enough for someone that spots your dog to capture it and return it to you.
 

JessLough

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#15
It would depend on where I am in life. Basically, whatever I could afford without putting myself, family or other pets in a situation where we aren't getting the basics.
 

Shakou

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#16
Here's another fun theoretical twist to this question. What if your dog was found by someone, and they were holding the dog ransom, while threatening harm to him/her and had some kind of proof (a photograph, etc). What would you all do then?

For me... I'd have to seriously mull that one over. Police obviously would be involved, but my goal would be to do whatever I could to ensure they didn't hurt my dog, and that would mean negotiation and taking some financial smacks.
 

Beanie

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#17
Here's another fun theoretical twist to this question. What if your dog was found by someone, and they were holding the dog ransom, while threatening harm to him/her and had some kind of proof (a photograph, etc). What would you all do then?
Stalking and physical violence.


I agree with BB, I do agree that offering a reward does start to smack of negotiating with terrorists, but realistically I know if Auggie were missing I would be moving heaven and earth to find him.
Nobody would keep Payton. And nobody could catch Pepper. =P (If Pepper ever got loose it would be a MAJOR problem.)
 

CaliTerp07

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#18
Here's another fun theoretical twist to this question. What if your dog was found by someone, and they were holding the dog ransom, while threatening harm to him/her and had some kind of proof (a photograph, etc). What would you all do then?

For me... I'd have to seriously mull that one over. Police obviously would be involved, but my goal would be to do whatever I could to ensure they didn't hurt my dog, and that would mean negotiation and taking some financial smacks.
I'd call the police.

I don't know that there's a difference between a $500 and $5000 reward. 98% of the time, the person is going to return the dog because it's the right thing to do. 1% of the time, the person has already sold the dog or done whatever they need to do with it. In the 1% of cases that a reward is motivation to turn the dog in, I would think $500 would be more than enough for my shelter mutt.

If I thought more money was the only obstacle to bringing my dog home, I'd offer more money...but I don't think the difference in reward amounts is going to change anything.
 

joce

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#19
I have money saved so I'm not going into any debt. I'm also not paying someone who stole my dog. I'm probably going to beat the snot out of you if you show up with a smile on your face asking for cash.

And hate to break it to you but police generally don't get involved with this. Pocession is what matters to them. Happened with my husky years ago. Said take them to court. We went and got her. Chaz is big. They didn't stop us.
 

CaliTerp07

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#20
I have money saved so I'm not going into any debt. I'm also not paying someone who stole my dog. I'm probably going to beat the snot out of you if you show up with a smile on your face asking for cash.

And hate to break it to you but police generally don't get involved with this. Pocession is what matters to them. Happened with my husky years ago. Said take them to court. We went and got her. Chaz is big. They didn't stop us.
Someone sent you threatening emails with photo proof they had your dog, and animal control/police/no one did anything about it?
 

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