“È arrivato a casa nostra magro, ferito e spaventato”: la SRPA di Liegi denuncia la restituzione di Ruben, un cane maltrattato, al suo proprietario per decisione del ministro-presidente della Vallonia, Adrien Dolimont, nonostante lo stato in cui era stato ritrovato l’animale

>The shelter also denounces the attitude of the owner of the dog who initially refused to pay a fee to recover his animal before returning accompanied by an agent of the armed Nature and Forest Department (DNF), “in what could be akin to an attempt of intimidation aimed at obtaining the immediate return of the animal, disregarding the procedure of seizure in progress,” according to the SRPA of Liège.

Disgusting. It is worth noting Adrien Dolimont and the rest of the new Walloon government have no love lost for shelters. One of their first acts upon taking office was massively defunding animal shelters and welfare societies by 83% while increasing the regional contribution to Pari Daiza:

https://www.rtl.be/actu/belgique/societe/les-refuges-pour-animaux-sauvages-menaces-par-le-gouvernement-wallon-le-bien/2024-12-20/article/732801

https://www.wallonie.be/fr/acteurs-et-institutions/wallonie/gouvernement-de-wallonie/communiques-presse/2024-12-19

https://pacs-asbl.be/budget-wallon-2025-les-animaux-sauvages-et-de-compagnie-en-danger/

>mais au terme d’une enquête menée en bonne et due forme et en fonction des éléments contenus dans le dossier,

We foster dogs and cats for a Flemish shelter, and have already had several dogs in our care after an “inbeslagname”. Once the cops get involved, the animal doesn’t go back to the previous owner until AFTER a judge has decided on it.

That being said, I think that here the problem is that the dog was “found” after it ran away during a hunt, so eventhough the animal is clearly in bad shape, it doesn’t seem like there was an actual police or judiciary intervention to take it away from its owner.

So yeah… if the owner pays the dues to the shelter, they have to give it back. They can ask police to do wellness checks, but clearly this guy has some cop-friends, so nothing much will come of that, I’m afraid.