Heartbroken Mt. Airy resident sues for return of pet

Posted 4/1/16

Selma Williams is hoping that her lawsuit will eventually enable her to be reunited with her beloved Akita, Prince. by Len Lear Selma Williams, a resident of West Mt. Airy, was the happy owner of …

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Heartbroken Mt. Airy resident sues for return of pet

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Selma Williams is hoping that her lawsuit will eventually enable her to be reunited with her beloved Akita, Prince. Selma Williams is hoping that her lawsuit will eventually enable her to be reunited with her beloved Akita, Prince.

by Len Lear

Selma Williams, a resident of West Mt. Airy, was the happy owner of Prince, a beautiful three-year-old Japanese Akita dog, a relatively rare breed in North America, until last Nov. 28, when he jumped over her backyard fence and ran away for an unknown reason.

“I looked for him everywhere in the neighborhood,” said the heartbroken dog owner. “I called the SPCA and vets in the area, but that did not help.”

Williams continued to look for Prince and eventually was informed by a neighbor that someone had found the dog and turned him over to the Animal Care and Control Team (ACCT Philly), a shelter at 111 West Hunting Park Ave. in North Philadelphia. Williams visited ACCT Philly, hoping to retrieve her dog, but she was told that Prince had been neutered and adopted by another woman. By law, the shelter must wait 48 hours to put a lost dog up for adoption, and Prince was adopted after the required 48 hours.

Williams asked ACCT Philly to get the dog back from the new adopter but was rebuffed. “I begged them,” she told us at the time. “The other woman only had the dog for a couple days. She could easily have returned our dog to us and then gotten another dog. Prince was a member of our family.”

Since Williams was unable to get Prince back with appeals to fairness and was not able to obtain the name of the woman who adopted him, she went to an attorney, Andrew R. Spiegel, a personal injury lawyer, who agreed to take the case pro bono and filed a lawsuit against ACCT Philly on Feb. 11. Williams also started a Facebook page, “Please Return Prince to his Family.”

“ACCT Philly refused to provide the identity of the adopter,” said Spiegel, “and we were told that they immediately neutered this show-quality dog without making any attempts to locate the owner. While we ultimately just want the dog back, we had no other recourse than to begin suing ACCT Philly.”

According to Carol Marchuk, a Paralegal and assistant for Spiegel, “I spoke to ACCT Philly early on in the process. They claim they reached out twice to the girl who adopted the dog and let her know that Selma has a lawyer and asked her to return the dog, but she refused.”

We contacted ACCT Philly on Monday and spoke to Ed Fritz, their Director of Operations. “I cannot speak about this specific case because of the litigation,” he said, “but I can tell you that we did follow the law. We are required to hold a stray dog, which means one with no I.D., for 48 hours. After that the options are adoption, euthanasia or turning it over to a rescue group. We do everything we can to find owners. We even have a lost-and-found page on our website, but Philadelphia is a big city.”

Under the law, dogs are considered personal property as opposed to living creatures with feelings, so plaintiffs are never able to obtain damages for pain and suffering in cases like this. However, since dogs are considered property and since Williams can easily prove that she was the legal owner of Prince, Marchuk is hopeful that a judge will order the return of Prince.

Although ACCT Philly no longer has the dog and Williams has not been able to obtain the name and address of the new caretaker, the “Discovery” process resulting from the lawsuit will require ACCT Philly to provide that information. (We were able to obtain a letter from Jamal Porter, the breeder of Prince, confirming that Prince was one puppy in a litter of five born on Aug. 12, 2012, and that “I can remember the joy of Ms. Williams’ daughters when they purchased Prince. They have been to my home with him three times since then, and I even have a picture taken during a visit Sept. 13, 2013.”)

According to Marchuk, “ACCT Philly told us that they reached out twice (to the new owner), but she said no … This is heartbreaking. That new woman only had the dog for a very short time. She has a moral obligation to give Prince back. I don’t how Mrs. Williams does it. She is delightful, the sweetest lady. She is often sobbing hysterically. We felt this poor woman needs help.

“A couple years ago we had a similar case. Mr. Spiegel wrote a letter, and the dog was returned. Andy (Mr. Spiegel) and I are both dog lovers. My dogs are like my children. We can’t promise we will be successful, but we feel the law is on our side. After Hurricane Katrina, there were several cases of lost dogs that were adopted out, but the original owners were helped by the courts to get them back.”

Spiegel has sent a letter to attorneys for ACCT Philly, asking for everything in their files, including the name and address of the woman (in New Jersey) who has refused to give Prince back. A hearing has been set in Philadelphia Municipal Court on the case for May 6.

locallife, mt-airy, pets