A Vancouver Rover sitter tells Daily Hive two Jack Russell terriers were abandoned in his care last month, and neither the app nor the BC SPCA could help him navigate the situation.
Giovany Comin, a student who accepts dog-sitting clients via the popular app, says a woman dropped the two dogs off on May 23.
“She was very weird from the beginning,” Comin said. “She was not very interested in how my apartment is or how many times I should feed them or take them for a walk. She was in a rush.”
Things got stranger the next day when one of the dogs became sick and started vomiting. He tried contacting the woman but received a message that her number had been disconnected.
Giovany Comin/Submitted
“From that moment, I knew she had abandoned the dogs.”
What to do when an owner ghosts?
Comin isn’t able to take care of dogs full-time on top of his job and studies. The dogs weren’t housetrained, and his and his roommate’s apartment quickly got messy. They were also said to be brothers and frequently fought with each other.
He tried contacting Rover, but it wasn’t much help — it told Comin to contact local authorities.
“In the extremely rare instance that a pet owner does not pick up their pet at the conclusion of a service, we’ll work to support the sitter in finding the best outcome for the pet(s),” Dave Rosenbaum with Rover told Daily Hive.
Rover can reach out to the owner’s emergency contacts and reimburse the sitter for their time and other pet supplies.
“In the case of permanent abandonment, we know that the best outcome for the pets is to be placed in a forever home, so we can work with the sitter to identify a local pet adoption organization,” Rosenbaum said. “We also take steps to ensure that the pet owner is removed from our community.”
But Comin said he was left on his own to figure out what to do with the dogs.
First, he contacted the BC SPCA but was told all their shelters in the Lower Mainland were at capacity. He took the dogs in-person to the Vancouver shelter, but was turned away.
“Imagine if I just left the dogs right there? What would they do?” he said. “It caused me a lot of trouble. I had to change my work schedule, I’m in school. I couldn’t take care of the dogs for those extra days.”
The BC SPCA told Daily Hive its Vancouver shelter was experiencing kennel cough, and couldn’t accept new animals at the time due to the risk of infection.
“Capacity is a challenge,” Eileen Drever with the BC SPCA said. “What I would suggest is, for anyone who finds themselves in that position, contact our animal helpline. But be a little bit patient. It may take a day or two, but we are here to help.”
Next, Comin tried the Vancouver Police Department but was told they couldn’t help because it wasn’t a criminal manner. The VPD confirmed it is not investigating the incident.
Vet clinic steps in to help
After failing to find help from authorities, Comin joined a Facebook group dedicated to re-homing dogs and posted about his situation.
There, he connected with an employee of a veterinary clinic in Surrey who was able to take the dogs and help them find a permanent home. Daily Hive has reached out to the clinic for an update.
In all, Comin ended up taking care of the dogs for two weeks instead of the scheduled one week. Rover paid him for the extra sitting, but he was shocked at the lack of support from both the app and agencies dedicated to caring for abandoned animals. Not to mention wondering why the dogs were left with him in the first place.
“People in Vancouver care a lot about their dogs. I would never imagine something like this would happen here. I know people spend a lot on their dogs; they love their pets,” he said. “A person literally abandoning the dogs with a pet sitter? Unbelievable.”