Stolen dog returned to Kauai shelter, 5 still missing

Subscribe Now Choose a package that suits your preferences.
Start Free Account Get access to 7 premium stories every month for FREE!
Already a Subscriber? Current print subscriber? Activate your complimentary Digital account.

LIHUE (AP) — A Kauai animal shelter is welcoming back one of six dogs that was stolen from the facility after the animal was found wandering along a highway.

LIHUE (AP) — A Kauai animal shelter is welcoming back one of six dogs that was stolen from the facility after the animal was found wandering along a highway.

Matthew Richardson, field services manager with the Kauai Humane Society, said the two-month-old Labrador-mix named Arianna was found and returned Wednesday by a group of teens that spotted it along the roadway in Kekaha.

“They called and possibly suspected it was one of the dogs taken,” Richardson said. “We scanned it and cleaned it and it was confirmed that it was one of the puppies taken.”

Officials at the shelter say Arianna and the other five dogs were taken after someone broke in by cutting a lock on a gate and climbing through a window during the night of May 14 or early morning of May 15.

“We came in Sunday morning and the dogs were gone,” said Penny Cistaro, executive director of KHS. She said she believes four of the animals were targeted because they had recently been picked up and were without tags or chips.

The Humane Society is offering a $5,000 reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the suspect or suspects involved in the incident.

Richardson and Cistaro are urging the public to be on the lookout for the other stolen dogs. They are three female pit bull mixes, ranging from two to seven years old, and two female Airedales that are two and five years old.