Family dog held by pound until they pay $300.00

[Catherine]

I can't find any follow up articles to this story. I will keep looking. I hope they got enough donations to help bring Bella home.
For people with children, money is often scarce. Maybe Bella wasn't microchipped because they didn't have the money.
I certainly seems cruel to keep the dog from her family because of money. Surely they could set up a payment plan to let them pay a little each month. 

Microchipping has made it so easy to return pets to their families. More needs to be done to encourage it. When Misty was with you, Microchipping wasn't as common. Back in the old days they actually tattooed pets with a number in the ear. I was able to return a cat who was far from home because of his tattoo. There is no way they would have looked for him that far from home.

There are stories now of microchipped cats coming home after 10 years.
The pound could have turned the story around and helped the family to micro chip Bella and make her safe from getting lost again. The best way to get people to do things is to be nice about it and to make them want to do it.  There are still a lot of people who are unsure of microchipping a pet. Bella could have been a teaching moment.