Is it Daisy? Or is it Annie?
The pending results of a DNA test could determine who will gain custody of a 4-year-old beagle found wandering along a rural Stafford County road. The dog’s now at the center of heated custody battle.
In late September, Bill Hoyt, who runs the Stafford SPCA, said Stafford residents had been contacting him for days about a malnourished beagle. The residents said the female dog had been out there for weeks.
Hoyt contacted Stafford County Animal Control, but three days later, he said they’d still not taken the dog into custody. So Hoyt took things into his own hands, decided to pick up the animal, and named her Daisy.
“She was a wreck,” Hoyt said. “She was so anemic from blood loss because she was so infested with fleas they were basically sucking her dry.”
Within a few days, the SPCA posted and distributed fliers with Daisy's picture. It was then that Hoyt said the Spindle family came forward to claim Daisy. They told Hoyt the pup, which they said was named Annie, was theirs.
But for Hoyt, the details weren’t adding up.
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"[The] Spindles said she'd been missing for three days, our witnesses say 30 [days]. They're saying she's a nursing female, the vet says she's not nursing. They're saying the dog is about two and half years old, I've got vets saying the dog is no younger than four," he said.
The SPCA refused to turn the dog over to the Spindles, worried that it’s not the same dog they’re claiming to look for and concerned over the conditions of the Spindle’s property. So began a custody battle over Daisy… or Annie, depending on whom you ask.
In November, Stafford County deputies executed a search of the shelter. The sheriff’s office filed for the warrant alleging theft of an animal.
“I don’t know how pulling a dog from the middle of the road out of traffic becomes theft or larceny,” Hoyt said.
But according to court filings, the prosecution believes Hoyt should have let animal control handle the situation from the beginning.
In the meantime, a judge has ordered a DNA test to compare Daisy with the Spindle’s other beagles to see if she is in fact Annie.
Both the Stafford County Commonwealth’s Attorney and the Spindle family declined to comment on record. All parties will be back in court next week when the results of the DNA test could be revealed.
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UPDATE: A court determined the beagle is most likely Annie and will be returned to the Spindles family.
