What started as an ideal dog adoption has become a nightmare for Tamaqua resident Sean McGeehan and his family.

After several days of misleading information and unanswered questions, McGeehan is still uncertain as to why Hillside SPCA took back his newly-adopted dog.

Hillside offered no comment when contacted on Thursday afternoon.

When McGeehan’s dog escaped his home over the weekend, the SPCA recovered it and took it back to the shelter. They did not offer to return the dog to the family. McGeehan’s story came to a head earlier this week when it stirred up a social media uproar from supporters of McGeehan and Hillside SPCA alike.

McGeehan first fell in love with Electra when he visited Hillside SPCA over the weekend with his family.

“I have an 11-year-old daughter and a 22-year-old son, and they were always begging me to get a dog. Over the weekend, Sienna, my daughter, says, “Let’s go get a dog. You have your home office and plenty of space. Let’s do it. So, we go to the SPCA, and we fell in love with this dog, a husky,” McGeehan said.

Workers allegedly warned McGeehan that the dog suffered from social anxiety disorder, and also required extensive exercise. What they didn’t realize was that McGeehan was a perfect candidate for such a pup.

“Every red flag they gave was a green one for us,” he said.

As a health coach with his own business and a home office, McGeehan would be able to dedicate a large amount of time to the dog. An avid runner with plenty of access to local trails, he saw no problem with having a high-energy animal.

When they brought Electra home, everything went well for the first day. McGeehan was able to go on a run with her, and she calmly spent the night with Sienna.

The escape

The next morning though, Electra took advantage of a screen door that wasn’t cinched shut, and she was able to spring outside. Sienna took off after her.

“I had two options: Call the SPCA, or go after my daughter and the dog,” McGeehan said.

He immediately jumped in his car and chased after them. Another resident notified the SPCA, who sent out workers to find Electra.

“Within two minutes, SPCA called and said, ‘We’re sending people out to help you.’ We honestly thought they were going to help us,” McGeehan said.

When the SPCA workers came out, McGeehan said that they were rude, openly swearing and acting hostile to him, his daughter and their neighbors who were helping to find Electra.

When they did find the husky, they took her back to Hillside SPCA. Over the next few days, McGeehan spent hours upon hours trying to find out what happened. He said he was given different excuses by various workers.

“We were unfit. The house wasn’t ready. The dog ran away three times from different owners in a week,” McGeehan said, listing off the workers’ reasons for withholding the dog.

According to a report from WBRE’s Haley Bianco, Hillside workers were upset that they were not notified immediately, and that the staff felt that the match was not a good fit.

Rehabilitation

McGeehan said that when he finally had an opportunity to speak with the shelter manager, Barbara Parnell, she explained that the dog had run away three times from three different owners in a week, and thus required rehabilitation. While Parnell did volunteer to refund his adoption fee, and even offer another dog with no fee, McGeehan was still upset.

Several volunteers from the shelter allegedly spammed his business’s Facebook page with one-star reviews. Another said McGeehan “broke the contract,” and ridiculed him for posting a photo of Electra with Sienna, saying that he was using his daughter to gain sympathy.

Adoption regulations can differ from shelter to shelter, and Carbon County Animal Shelter’s Tom Connors said that it is possible that Hillside could include a stipulation that allows them to repossess a dog in certain circumstances, but he still found the situation peculiar.

“Here’s the thing — every shelter, every rescue has their own policies. I can only assume that the shelter had the animal’s best interest in mind. But, the whole thing just doesn’t make sense,” he said. “If I adopted out a dog, it ran away from the owner, and we found it, we would contact the person, so they could get their dog back.”

Over the past few days, McGeehan said that he has received a huge amount of support from strangers and friends alike on social media. He has also heard similar stories of Hillside’s conduct, which raised his concern that the shelter’s actions were not just.

Lawyers from PETA even contacted him, offering their services. McGeehan said that he was informed that they were ignored or cursed at when they attempted to discuss the matter with volunteers at the shelter.

Electra is currently being housed at a Husky rescue operation to help address her supposed issue with escaping. However, McGeehan is still concerned about the conduct of the shelter workers, and the amount of time he had to wait to get any sort of response. While Electra’s future with the family is uncertain, McGeehan simply hopes that her story and the experience his family went through will do some good.

“It just breaks our heart, because she was a perfect fit,” he said. “But hopefully something will change with this.”