Dog-Hating Father Secretly Surrenders Dog His Kid Loves To No-Kill Shelter, Asks Online Community If It Makes Him Bad

Quora users consider it betrayal.

May

• Published in Interesting
• February 27, 2024

Pets are best known for cozying up to our hearts and homes. But if one family member isn't fond of adorable canines, it can put family ties to the test.

Picture this: a dad who isn't too keen on dogs finds himself grappling with a tough decision—what to do with the beloved family pet that just doesn't sit right with him. For those who aren't exactly smitten with our canine pals, having a wagging tail around can stir up more than a few uneasy feelings.

Even though the kids may adore their furry playmate, sometimes, the clash of emotions can push someone to take drastic steps—like quietly saying goodbye to the pup in the most gentle way possible, even if it means behind-the-scenes maneuvers.

Today's post is about a dad who clearly abhors dogs that he decided to surrender it to a shelter despite knowing that his child loves it so much. He then lied and told his kid that the pet ran away.

This is his question:

I hate my kids’ dog. I gave it to a no-kill shelter and told them it ran away. Am I a bad person?

As you would expect, people reprimanded the original poster (OP), with some users sharing their experiences and how it impacted their relationship with their parents.

The OP should seriously reflect on his behavior.

My mother took my dog to animal control while I was away visiting my best friend for the last time. She had just moved out of state.

When I got back, she told me my beloved German Shepard had run away while I was gone. He was my only friend left, and now he was gone too.

I was desperate to find him. I made posters, biked the neighborhood multiple times per day calling him, calling the shelters morning and night, insisting to my Mom that we had to keep looking for him.

She finally got fed up with being nagged about the dog and admitted she had taken him to animal control. I doubt she would have told me the truth if I hadn’t been so single minded about finding him.

He had jumped the fence before when his humans left, so we had a tie outside for that, since she refused to let him in the house. She just didn’t like him, she only liked dogs that worshiped her so he was nothing to her, even though he was everything to me.

He wanted to go look for his humans when no one was home, we had a tie because of this. He was fine if any person was home, but when she left she just couldn’t be bothered to use the tie we had to keep him in the yard, so he jumped the fence.

He came back perfectly healthy but she took him to animal control so she wouldn’t have to deal with him. She had no feelings for my dog, she was only worried about him possibly getting hit and costing her money.

She didn’t care that he was the only friend I had left at that time.

When I think of my Mom, I think of this. This was just one example of how cruel, selfish and emotionally calloused her behavior could be sometimes.

It is also the first thing that pops to my mind when I think of her. The second one isn’t much better and also involves pets, and how little she cared about what I loved.

I don’t know you, I don’t know if this is a one off situation but I doubt it. If you can take away a pet that your kids love just because it doesn’t please you, I can’t help but think that you are that cold and selfish at other times.

Maybe they don’t know the truth, that doesn’t make the loss less. A loss that wouldn’t have happened if not for you. Yes, bad people selfishly lie to cover up their bad actions so they can avoid the consequences.

Maybe you should examine your behavior, if you don’t want your kids strongest memories to be you emotionally betraying them. You aren’t always going to be successful covering up bad behavior with lies.

A farm manager's negligence.

I had a Jack Russel named Patch when I was still in Primary School. I believed Patch was the luckiest dog in the world, because he was allowed to stay on our farm.

We had a manager there who took care of him for me while I was in the city, and I still believe my excitement trumped his when we went to the farm on weekends. I would beg to take him home with me, but the one time I did, he seemed miserable.

There is not as much room for him to play. And the manager’s female Jack Russel was a good companion of his.

They had 3 litters during the next few years. And the manager was allowed to sell them all and keep the profit.

I kept one puppy which we named Lalla.

One weekend, I came looking for Lalla. The manager didn’t know we’d be coming to the farm that weekend.

I found her locked in storage with no food and no water, but with a ready made bed. She was so weak she wouldn’t even look at me when I entered.

Her brothers and sisters were all healthy and ready for their new homes.

Even as child I had my suspicions about what had happened. How was her bed in the storage department but no food or water was placed there?

Ironically the one puppy out of three litters that would not bring the manager profit?

I asked him where Patch was in a voice as demanding as a child’s voice could sound. He shrugged and said he went out into the bushveld to play.

He will be back by nightfall.

Every weekend since then, I was out in the bushveld with my kiddies quadbike calling to my dog. No one said he was dead, so I went looking for tracks that would indicate he got lost and is trying to find his way home.

The manager never offered to help. And to this day, i know he had something to do with Patch’s disappearance.

As child, I was too naive to know better, but I saw him dip the puppies full body into a bucket of tick poison. He told me that is how you ensure they won’t become sick. And yet we lost two the next day.

Today I wish I had known better. I still don’t know the truth about my dog’s dissapearance. As a child, I searched for almost a year. In that same year, the managar was fired for negligence of our game animals’ drinking dams.

Go get your dog back. The truth has a way of coming out.

Your kids will never forgive you if they learn the truth, and psychologicaly you are causing them pain. So yes. You are a bad person.

A soul-crushing story.

Yes. My Mother did this to me when I was a kid.

We had an Australian Shepherd we named Ringo. All of us kids loved that dog so much, but my Mom never took the time to train him.

He quickly went from manageable puppy to out of control adolescent who couldn't even be walked on a leash. Poor Ringo was banished to the back yard, which at the time wasn’t too bad.

The yard was large and we had a big pool that we kids would swim in with him.

But as time passed Ringo didn’t get any better. He was an Austrailian Shepherd after all.

This breed needs to be with their family, not alone all the time. They need regular exercise, not just wandering a yard aimlessly.

My brother and I were both under ten but we knew Ringo was miserable and so we did everything in our power to try and make his life fun. Every day we went into that backyard and played with him, running circles around the pool before jumping in once he caught up.

We would be covered in scratches from Ringo’s nails, but always had the biggest grins on our faces.

Well… one day out of the blue my brother and I came home from school and Ringo was simply… gone. We asked and asked and my Mom finally admitted that he was taken to the shelter.

Now you might be thinking “wait. The dog was miserable and not being taken care of. Why is that a bad thing?”

Two reasons.

Our area was and still is a high-kill area. Dogs rarely last past the mandated three days.

The second reason? My Mom swore up and down that if no one adopted Ringo in the next two days, WE WOULD GO GET HIM.

We made her swear she wouldn’t let them kill our dog. For years she told us that Ringo got a new home, and we believed he was much happier with a family that could properly care for him.

Ringo… my friend… was put down the very day my Mom dropped him off.

I’ve never trusted my Mom when it comes to animals since that day. She lost a lot of my respect as well.

So you may not be a bad person per se, but your children WILL find out what you did. And you will likely NEVER be forgiven for it.

Finding out what happened to the dog shattered the kid's heart.

Yes you didn't do good sir/Madam.

It happened to me as a kid.

I had a black female labrador named Silky when I was 14 years old. My mom's complaint was that I played with silky all the time and didn't study at all.

She warned me many times that she give her to someone else which I didn't take that seriously as my mom also loved the dog.

It was on the weekends that I went to my friend's house for few hours and when I came back, I couldn't find my dog..I searched for her everywhere as I didn't want to believe that she was taken away.

Turns out my mom talked to someone from church and they talked to someone else who took silky away. I cried like anything that day..and in the evening I convinced my mom that we should get her back otherwise I won't be studying.

So my mom agreed and I with my brother went to their house who had my silky. I cried to them to return my dog but they made an excuse that their son is also in love with the dog now and told me to come in the morning once the boy goes to his school..which we believed.

Next day as I had school, my brother went there alone to get silky but turns out that they had sold silky to someplace and locked up their house. We went to the police station to report them but the police didn't file the complaint as the culprits were very rich people with strong connections and advised us to not chase this case.

My mom and dad didn't want to get in any trouble because of this and they didn't push the police to file the complaint.

We heard later that she was sold to someone from Nepal or northeast where they eat dogs. This was really heartbreaking for all of us.

That night my mom cried more than me as she realised what big mistake she had done…I still miss Silky a lot..please get Ur kid's dog back..Dogs give u selfless love..they don't do any harm..I request u again…t c

Mother went from hating the dog to loving it.

I hated my kid’s dog. He destroyed thousands and thousands of dollars worth of my stuff.

He bit and he bit hard. My son found him as a dirty stray puppy Walking along A railroad track.

I said no you can’t keep him many times before I finally said yes. I looked diligently for the owner, Posting ads looking at the lost and found sites, to no avail.

The dog is Australian cattle dog that has so much energy and as a puppy was wild. He could jump higher than any barrier you could pile up.

My two dogs hate him So we have to keep them on separate sides of the house.

But my son and this dog bonded Like I have never seen a dog bond with someone. Aero, the dog,s name, And my son were inseparable.

The dog love to lay next to him, stretched out side-by-side on his bed. My son was having some terrible emotional issues.

Somehow his love for this dog changed him. He had responsibility for the dog and because he knew I hated the dog I told him he had to train the dog.

However I would never have gotten rid of the dog. Yes he chewed up probably over $5000 worth of stuff, and bit my fingers so hard as a puppy That I have never felt such horrible pain.

Shit and piss too until potty trained.

As Aero has grown up He did become a much better dog. Although he still a chewer, he still bites If pushed.

So we have a lot of toys for him to chew. But I see how much my son loves Aero, And honestly He is a better person because of the dog.

It would devastate my son if this dog was not part of our family. More training is needed, but he is better now he is 1 year old. It was a rough year.

There was one evening when I was sitting at my sewing table, a location where lots of chewing damage had occurred, looked at the dog in the face aware that I hated him and said to myself I need to love this dog and work with him on being a better dog. My son loves this dog, so I need to love him too.

Things really changed after I changed my headset, I started giving the dog loving attention, brushing him, correcting his behavior, learning the dog commands to make him sit etc. He has is one year old and loves his grandma (me) wildly.

I have learned to keep anything important out-of-the-way in the drawer or covered. He has learned to respect my space which I think is understood by dogs.

He learnedTo stop most of the bad behavior but because he has such a high energy level he really can’t be left alone in the house without being crated or in a dog proof room.

The point of all this is that I learned to love the dog because my son loves the dog. I do love the dog , and there are things I like about him.

He can be sweet at times. I had to look for the good traits and become an active participant in changing what I hated about him . Never would I give the dog away because I know the pain of that with my parents took away my cat when I was six and The terrible grief is still a memory 55 years later.

And my parents gave the cat away to give her a better living situation and explained that to me. Of course there would be situations where a dog would have to be surrendered, such as viciousness that could not be corrected.

But this is rare. And we need to change laws that allow landlords to allow pet ownership since people give away dogs for that reason.

The answer to your question whether you are an evil person….. you only care about yourself and not your son. I don’t know if you made any effort to like the dog but there are lots of things can be done to remedy the situation.

I agree with what has been said before that you really need to see if you can get the dog back. Then work with the dog to make restitution to the dog.

If the dog has been adopted out, sometimes you can contact the new owner and see if they will give the dog back to you.

if he was if he was given away to someone and you know who they are but won't give you the dog, then see if you can take your son to visit the dog and fess up to what you did and why you did it. So he can say goodbye to the dog

Training is the key if the dad doesn't like the dog's behavior.

Yes, you’re evil. You’re taking away something your child loves and lying to them.

They will really hate you when they find out the truth… Get the dog back, and invest in some training for your family.

The OP didn't even consider how his child would feel.

Absolutely. That’s why you’re asking this question.

If it were the right thing to do, you wouldn’t be posting this.

You took something your child loved away from them because it inconvenienced you. Then you lied to them about it because you knew that if you told them the truth, you would look like a monster.

I think you already know the answer to your own question. What you did was cruel and dishonest.

Not only have you probably broken your child’s heart, you’ve also traumatized the dog - a living, sentient creature. Ripping it away from its family and dumping it in a shelter all because you felt inconvenienced or annoyed by it.

That is an indication of a serious lack of morality and empathy on your part, and this is one of the biggest hallmarks of a bad person. Shame on you.

The father should have considered how his deeds might affect the precious bond between him and his child. The breach of trust could stir feelings of hurt and disappointment in the kid's heart, potentially straining their connection.

He needs to try and get the dog back before it's too late.

May