Help get Reggie home :(
Please read the full story :) #HelpGetReggieHome
Me and my boyfriend have a dog called Reggie. He’s an adorable 4 year old Rottweiler cross that’s loved by many people who know us, he’s soft and harmless and has never hurt a fly before.
Back in September when we wasn’t at home, he got out due to an issue with the door (which is in the process of being fixed**). Because he is a big dog, the police were rung. He was alone and scared at the time, surrounded by loads of people he didn’t know (including the police with riot shields, spraying him with fire extinguishers) and a neighbour who has seen us with him before tried to get him back into our home but Reggie ended up biting him. He didn’t press any charges as he saw Reggie was in a state of fear and he knows Reggie is a good dog and would never have done that if we was there. Nothing like this has ever happened before and we know it wouldn’t happen again as he wouldn’t behave in that manner around us as he wouldn’t be scared.
We went to court and got Reggie back on the 1st January (after him being in the kennels for 3 and half months) and ended up with a court order claiming he must be muzzled at all times in public areas, which we are okay with doing. However, just 10 days later as my boyfriend was looking for the harness, Reggie got out for not even a minute just on our front without a muzzle, this has caused a neighbour to ring the police, who have came and said that Reggie hadn’t done anything wrong and that they weren’t going to take him as he wasn’t dangerous. However, due to the breach of the court order they came and took Reggie away again a few days later :( this time he hasn’t done anything wrong or tried to harm anyone, it was an accident due to the front door opening by itself, and he is being punished for it with another 5 months in the kennels:(( which is longer than last time?!
**The issue with the door was the latch not locking, but still being unable to open it from the outside (so we believed it was closed properly). The door is in the process of being replaced - we have recently had someone come out and measure it so they’ll be back out soon to fit a new door. We have also had someone come out already to fix the latch whilst we wait for the new door. He determined there was a missing screw, so he fitted new screws and greased the latch, so the front door should no longer open on its own.
Last time, the solicitor fee was £780. When including the £240 court fine, over £1000 was spent to get Reggie home.
We now have to go through the court process to get him back again on the 2nd June, which would result in Reggie spending a total of 8-9 months in the kennels, even though he isn’t an aggressive dog at all. He is a good boy who just ran into a bulk of bad luck :((
The solicitor fee this time round is £1,800 and we simply cannot afford this, so we’re hoping this GoFundMe can help us out, even if it is just a little bit. If we can’t raise the money, we will have to attend court without a solicitor as free legal aid doesn’t cover most animal cases.
Please help us get our baby home :(( we’re missing him so much.
Edit: Also, because Reggie was out without his muzzle, it was classed as a breach of the court order, so the Notice of Charge we got should’ve been under legislation to charge us for the breach, but instead they’ve included TWO charges: one being the breach (which is correct) and then the other being section 3(1) of the dangerous dogs act which claims that the dog was “dangerously out of control”. However this WASNT the case, as the police officer who was called out said he hadn’t done anything wrong and that they wasn’t going to take him. They only came 4 days later to take him due to the BREACH of the control order. So we are being charged under legislation that we SHOULD NOT be charged with as he wasn’t “dangerously out of control” and the police who attended would confirm that. It’s so unfair on Reggie being in there for another 5 months just because the court has charged us with the wrong thing :(
