A Dog Named Smokey Reunites with Guardian After Being Kidnapped

On May 27, 2025, a criminal complaintwas filed by the Milwaukee County District Attorney's Office alleging burglary, threats to injure, and disorderly conduct constituting domestic abuse involving a 4-month-old shih tzu named Smokey.

According to the complaint, Smokey was living with his human, her children, and her fiancé in Wisconsin. Then his guardian broke up with her fiancé and the fiancé moved out, leaving Smokey living with just his guardian and her children. Unfortunately, the ex-fiancé came back three days later while Smokey's human was at work: entering the house without permission, and kidnapping Smokey.

The ex-fiancé proceeded to text Smokey's guardian a picture of the pup captioned "he's unharmed", but threatening to kill him if Smokey's guardian did not pay her ex-fiancé nearly one and a half thousand dollars.

As law enforcement investigated, they discovered that the ex-fiancé had additionally taken Smokey away to Southern California.

Milwaukee County Victim's Services was able to identify a narrow window of time in which Smokey would be held by a third party who would be willing to hand him over to someone who could lawfully have custody of him. The challenge at that point would be using that time window to reunite Smokey with his guardian. Fortunately, the prosecutoron this case, ADA Elaine Fehrs, has worked with the Animal Legal Defense Fund (ALDF) on a variety of cases, and alerted the organization to Smokey's situation. ALDF worked quickly to identify Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Los Angeles (spcaLA) as a partner organization that would be able to take custody of Smokey and safely hold him until his guardian could fly in and be reunited with him. While spcaLA was getting Smokey the veterinary clearance required flight, ALDF arranged for his guardian to get a last-minute ticket to Los Angeles - and two tickets back the same day: one for her, and one for Smokey.

Thanks to the efforts of multiple organizations like the spcaLA working together, Smokey and his guardian were happily reunited to resume their lives together. spcaLA has a long history of helping animals. Founded in 1877, spcaLA is Southern California's preeminent animal welfare agency. Donations run animal cruelty investigations, violence prevention humane education initiatives, disaster response, lost pet reunification, pet adoptions, and a host of shelter services.