MASON CITY – A marine veteran whose dog ran away and ended up in the local animal shelter but then encountered trouble getting his pet back will be reunited with the pooch, the shelter says.
United States Veteran Jake Fesko’s dog Gunner (a retriever) escaped from Jake’s yard and was impounded by the Mason City Animal Shelter. The operation was closed for four days over the Fourth of July holiday and then initially refused to give Gunner back to Jake.
As word spread of the standoff that followed, including the shelter allegedly asking for hundreds of dollars in fees and procedures for Gunner, a social media outburst followed – many times a common reaction in modern times to touchy subjects – including threats from the public against the Humane Society, which shares a building with the city-owned animal shelter on Birch Drive in Mason City that actually was dealing with Gunner.
Late Tuesday, the Humane Society of North Iowa felt compelled to release a statement on the matter, saying:
It’s been a rough few days for us here at the Humane Society of North Iowa. We do our best to work with pet owners, adopters, volunteers, and animal lovers….all while making sure we adhere to the laws and ordinances we are required to follow as a non-profit animal shelter. Sometimes the results are not always to people’s liking or satisfaction, but no matter what, no one (on either side of ANY issue) deserves these kinds of threats. Ever.
While the end result of this story is that the owner will be reunited with his dog, the lesson to take away from it is that as pet owners, you must know the laws and requirements in your state and community in order to avoid this kind of situation in the first place. In the State of Iowa, dogs over the age of 6 months are required to be vaccinated for rabies. In the City of Mason City, cats and dogs are required to be vaccinated for rabies and also have a current city license. Each community and state may have different laws…but knowing them and adhering to them is a part of responsible pet ownership.
We appreciate everyone’s positive comments and support that you’ve shown us during this very controversial incident and hope that as a community and as animal lovers, we can all move forward with the common goal to help homeless and displaced animals. Thank you.
Our family’s experience with the Humane Society is that they lie, lie, lie, especially Ms Soukup. She has way too much power there & needs to have someone check up on how she does business.She manages both the shelter and Human Society & does not have a good reputation. Seems she follows the rules when it suits her. The shelter is paid for by us tax payers. She needs to be replaced.
Big daddy government now only trusted by 20% of Americans ( by the way over 20% of its citizens are public employees or subsist -sponge off the government) It’s the victims fault of course. PS where can I make a donation for a new set of balls for his best friend the hero of the story ?
The few. The proud. The Marines.
Allen – No this was the veteran who got his NUTLESS dog back after 5 days of worthless negotiations with people with no commons sense screaming its the law -its the law – Priceless and worthless.
Very good summarization! Lol Ms. Soukup and the lot are complaining that they have nothing to do with it. Yet, she chose to be the spokesperson. I wonder how much she makes for
that side gig or what perks gets or gives for that deal? It’s amazing how she is the victim in all of this and not the nutless, traumatized dog.
His dog was not on a leash, had no identification, no current rabies vaccination, no city license, and this guy wants a pity party. What would have happened to this poor dog had it been hit by a car and been injured? If he couldn’t afford to bail it out of animal control, how was he going to pay a veterinary bill had the dog been hurt? Broken legs cost a lot to fix. This guy is not a responsible pet owner.
Amen, The Globe and Kimt decided not to put this information in their reports. The idiots who continue to watch and read their garbage need to get real.
Is this the same guy that was on North Iowa Most Wanted list, and charged with domestic abuse a few years back.
You have a great memory Allen. Thanks for the information. A quick search of NIT shows:
http://northiowatoday.com/2017/02/26/mason-city-man-jailed-after-domestic-incident-2/
You busted him Allen. Nice work.
http://northiowatoday.com/2017/02/26/mason-city-man-jailed-after-domestic-incident-2/
http://northiowatoday.com/2017/02/26/mason-city-man-jailed-after-domestic-incident-2/
Great job Allen. You busted this scam artist
He played the Veteran Card and appealed is cause to the court of social media. Whats fair is fair. He got held to the same standard as non veterans.
Was the Marine looking for special treatment simply because he was a veteran?
What a rude comment. You must be a Soukup crony.
That’s pure Bullshit. If military service was completely irrelevant why the hell was it such a central part of the story??
Well since everyone appears to infer or think they know what this man’s deal is I.e., smoker, doesn’t keep up-to-date with shots, bad veteran, I will throw my two cents in: Maybe just maybe this Marine is a hard working man with a family to feed who was short on cash. It takes a lot to keep food on the table these days. He goes in and is told the price. Let’s them know he will be back on payday because he is short on cash. He comes back in and they now want him to cough up $250 but was told the price was xx number of dollars earlier with no mention of the longer he waits the more it’s gonna cost. They knew he was coming back. He made arrangements so I would be pissed as hell too!
What I am saying is that Suokup has done this before saying they had to do all this and the dog was already up-to-date on his shots and had previously been neutered. Suokup has refused to return a dog to Patriots for Pets claiming this same shit and it wasnt true!
So you have some insider information? Lots of what you outline as fact is not mentioned in the story above. Or is it your theory “maybe just maybe”. If theory then its not worth much. If it is trustworthy information then you have a great case to be made.
Because KIMT had no stories in Rochester to tell
My “maybe just maybe” is just as good as any of the others who have posted on here. Maybe they should contact Patriots for Pets to get their take on how nice Soukup is when an owner surrendered a puppy to the Humane Society and not back to Patriots for Pets as the contract states.
P for P is a non profit scam. Numerous articles posted here attest to their rotten reputation.
Yea, pay the 10 of 15 bucks to have your dog licensed. That’s only a couple less packs of cigs
If the owner would have just paid the 50 bucks in the first place wouldn’t have been a big deal.Said he couldn’t pay and the dog was left another week.Under law they had to update the dogs shots and neuter the dog.Everyone is making the animal shelter as the bad guys. Maybe the guy never had the dog licensed (which is a law) so he could prove the dog was his. Keep track of your dog and keep it on a leash.
It’s all about the money for Soukup. I say it’s time for a
change of leadership at the Humane Society. For example, look at that poor dog a few years back that was badly abused. They had over a thousand applicants and she claimed no one was suitable. In my view, that poor dog was used as a money maker for the organization. With the constant articles providing updates while requesting donations. The Humane Society overall is a wonderful organization but it’s time for new leadership.
if you read the article you would see the Humane Society had nothing to do with it. City owned animal shelter (the pound) had the dog… get your facts right before blasting people
Good Dimms – their incompetent and throw the blame back on the public and the owner of the pet – no common sense in the public sector – some of these people are really nice while others could not tie their own shoe lace. That goes for all not just the poorly paid people at the shelter.
This is great news. So glad to hear everyone came to their senses