LIBERTY LAKE, Wash. — A service dog was allegedly taken and sold without the owner's permission when Faithful K9 Training in Coeur d'Alene was shut down for negligence in July after a dog died from apparent heat exhaustion.
Uriee, the missing service dog, was the second service dog that Marla Haller says she bought for her mother, Joanna Sawyer, who was battling congestive heart failure.
"So, we had all this set up for her, and Uriee was her security," said Haller.
When Sawyer passed away, Haller says she boarded Uriee at Faithful K9 while she arranged the funeral. She says the facility was one they had used before.
"I'm thinking he's taken care of, so I can just focus on my mom," said Haller.
However, animal control in Coeur d'Alene shut down the facility due to negligent care and when Haller went to pick up Uriee, the dog was gone.
"I started calling and visited the place, but nobody was there. I called animal control, trying to find out where he was," said Haller.
Haller soon received help from Monique Smith, who trained Uriee as a service dog and has been training dogs for 15 years.
Smith and Haller say that through a Kootenai County Jail inmate list, they found that the owner of the boarding facility, Richard Alaniz, had been put in jail on unrelated charges.
"How they got a kennel license and ran a business, I don't know," said Smith. "It's really scary actually, because you're putting a dog's life in your hands and one dog passed away, which is why animal control shut them down."
Smith and Haller also say that an employee at the facility stepped forward and told the two that another kennel worker, who is a minor, allegedly sold Uriee to a couple on Facebook.
"There's no paperwork for surrendering him, there's no paperwork for adopting him, there's no paperwork at all," said Smith.
Smith says she has filed a claim for malicious injury because she believes Faithful K9 neutered Uriee without the owner's consent. Smith says ultimately she just hopes Uriee is returned safely.
"I breed dogs, these dogs are my entire world, they are my entire world. I know exactly where all my dogs are, but I don't know where he is at," said Smith.
Smith and Haller say that an employee from the boarding facility told them that a couple purchased Uriee on July 29 at Half Moon Park in Liberty Lake.
Both Smith and Haller are working to hold employees at Faithful K9 accountable and ask that the new owners of Uriee step forward and return him.
"I need him home. I really just need him home," said Smith.