A family couldn't pay the bills, so the city took their dog and sold it on eBay

[Eugene]

Source: Washington Post

A family couldn’t pay the bills, so the city took their dog and sold it on eBay

By Katie Mettler February 28 at 7:00 PM
The family could not pay its debts, so their German town council went looking for assets to seize.

Officials, armed with a search warrant, found a laptop, a coffee machine and the wheelchair of one family member, according to reporting from the German publication Die Glocke.

Most valuable of all, though, was the family’s beloved pet — Edda the pug.

The 1-year-old female dog was valuable to the family, of course, because she had provided comfort in trying times, they told local media. But she was valuable to town officials, too, because Edda was a purebred. So authorities from Ahlen, a town 25 miles southwest of Munster, seized the pug and assessed her value at $850.

Then they listed her for sale on eBay.

-snip-

But now, more than two months since the sale, nobody seems happy.

-snip-

Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/science/2019/03/01/family-couldnt-pay-their-bills-so-city-took-their-dog-sold-it-ebay/


Edda the pug is pictured in Duesseldorf, Germany, on Feb. 27, 2019. Officials in Germany are defending their decision to seize the pet of an indebted family and sell it on eBay, saying it was a last . (Mikko Schimmelfeder/dpa/AP)

[InAbLuEsTaTe]

1. This has to be a joke... right?!

Bernie & Elizabeth 2020!!!
Welcome to the revolution!!!

[Bayard]

2. This is too screwed up

One of the things they were in debt for was a dog tax. I guess Germany has very different laws, but this sounds extreme. And taking another family member's wheelchair?

Sounds like the family would not have been able to afford the $2,000 worth of eye surgery that the new owner had to pay, but this is too sad.