Logan dognapper fined $800 for stealing dogs from pound

An animal lover whose family dog was stolen from a southside pound has written a letter to a court forgiving the dognapper.

Jacqueline McKay with her two dogs she was allowed to keep. She was forced to surrender her white maltese terrier Peppy to Logan pound because she was not allowed to keep more than two dogs at her Slacks Creek property.

AN animal lover whose family dog was stolen from a southside pound has written a letter forgiving the dognapper.

Jacqueline Joy McKay, from Slacks Creek pleaded guilty to breaking into the Logan pound and stealing three dogs last year.

But before she went before Beenleigh Magistrate Gary Finger this month, the owner of one of the dogs, Juanita Barrett, who also runs a missing dogs website, wrote a letter forgiving Ms McKay.

In the letter of support, tendered to the court, Mrs Barrett said Ms McKay had explained what happened and expressed remorse and apologised for any stress or sadness caused to her family.

THE POUND STORY WHICH BROUGHT TWO DOG LOVERS TOGETHER

Juanita Barrett, who runs Lost Dogs Logan with a small white maltese terrier, who also looks like Tia, who was taken from the Logan Pound.

The letter of support for Jacqueline McKay from Juanita Barrett whose dog was stolen from Logan pound.

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Ms McKay told the court she went to Logan City Council’s pound at Kingston on the evening of March 25 last year after her three dogs were impounded.

She said she “saw no alternative” but to set loose her three dogs from a cage, which fronted the footpath, because she feared she would never see them again.

They had been nabbed four times in the past year and the pound manager had warned Ms McKay she would not get them back if caught a fifth time.

The doors to the dog cages fronted the footpath at the Queens Rd pound and Ms McKay could hear her dogs in the kennel.

She was able to spring open the door to one of the cages and “grabbed” three dogs and put them into her car.

However, in her haste and in the dark, when she arrived home, to her surprise, one of the dogs, a small maltese terrier, was not hers.

Peppy, the white maltese terrier, which had to be surrendered to the Logan pound.

Her white maltese terrier, Peppy, had evaded the pound officers and was waiting on the front steps at home.

The white maltese terrier broken out of the pound was Tia, a female owned by the family of Mrs Barrett, who runs Lost Dogs Logan, a website for people trying to find their missing pets.

Tia, who was mistaken for Peppy, was eventually reunited with her owner.

Mrs Barrett said she was notified by the pound on Sunday, March 25 that Tia had been picked up and was in a holding cage.

“We arrived to collect Tia on the Monday morning only to be informed she wasn’t in there,” Mrs Barrett said.

“After requesting the CCTV footage be reviewed to establish what had happened, it was revealed that our dog had been removed from the pen and taken away.

“We were not supplied with any further details until a couple of days later when the dog was returned to the pound and we were contacted to collect.”

The pound rang police and Ms McKay was charged with breaking into the pound with the intention of stealing a dog and she was also forced to surrender Peppy to the pound for having too many dogs on one property.

Jacqueline McKay outside Beenleigh Magistrates Court where Magistrate Gary Finger fined her $800 and did not record a conviction.

Before Ms McKay went to court this month, she read an Albert & Logan News story about the pound not having an instalment payment plan which was posted on the Lost Dogs Logan website.

She made comment about her traumatic case and started a conversation with Mrs Barrett, who realised Ms McKay had not intended to steal Tia.

“After hearing Jacqueline’s story, I feel nothing but sorrow for her and her family,” Ms Barrett said.

“While I do not condone her actions, I do feel it was exceptional circumstances and it is clear she loves and cares for her animals.

“When the dogs escaped by digging under the fence she always went to the pound and paid for them to come home, even without an instalment payment system so to have to surrender one of her dogs was just ludicrous.”

Magistrate Finger did not record a conviction, for the offence which has a maximum sentence of 14 years in jail.