Woman claiming to be Annie's new owner speaks out

Posted: Aug 28, 2010 7:17 PM by Courtney Meznarich
Updated: Aug 28, 2010 8:23 PM

New developments in the story of Chuck Hoage and his former dog Annie. A person claiming to be Annie's new owner is speaking out on a Facebook page created in support of Hoage. The woman, who is going by the pen name Sasha Sampson, posted a letter detailing what she and her young daughter have gone through since the Annie debate began. Annie was spooked by a gunshot a few weeks ago and ended up at an animal shelter. She was then adopted out without Hoage's knowledge.

A rally planned today in support of Hoage was canceled in light of the letter. "It just seemed really inappropriate to do the rally," said rally organizer Verena Maier. "It's the first time we've heard from this family, and it's a pretty strong letter, but we also have to respect the wishes, and bottom line, we're just trying to work this out and get the dog back to chuck," she said.

Maier says there has been communication between Hoage and the family and she hopes they will be meeting soon. We tried to contact Sampson but were unsuccessful. In her letter she says "All we wanted was to adopt a loving pet. We adopted, licensed, micro-chipped, and took Annie to a local veterinarian. We feel we did all the right things and Hoage broke all the laws of responsibility to Annie. The shelter affirmed to us that all legal requirements were met and we trusted that things were in order."