Dog auction suspended after original owner agrees to pay fees

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The online auction of Dengdeng, a four-year-old Shiba Inu, has been halted by a court in Beijing as its owner got in touch and agreed to hand over all the unpaid kennel fees.

The “abandoned” dog, Dengdeng, was going to be auctioned on e-commerce website Taobao on Nov. 10 according to an order from Beijing Chaoyang Court.

However, after the dog's owner, Mr Xiao, contacted the court on Oct. 31 and paid the pet care company Chonglehui 63,310 yuan (about 9,148 US dollars) for overdue kennel charges, the auction has been suspended, Beijing Youth Daily reported.

Dengdeng playing with the staff of care center./ Screenshot via Weibo

The pets foster care center filed an application to the court to postpone the judicial auction on Nov. 5, saying that it has reached a preliminary agreement with Xiao, who lives in the US now, and the center will continue to take care of Dengdeng for two months until Xiao returns to China. To this end, Xiao has prepaid the kennel fees.

According to earlier reports, Dengdeng was left at the care center on Dec 20, 2014 with a one-year contract. Xiao had collected Denddeng for a week during the Spring Festival in 2015, but went missing when charges were due in 2015.

After trying, but failing to reach the owner, the center turned to the legal system in 2016. A year later, the court decided to put Dengdeng up for auction as Xiao could not be reached.

"I feel guilty of this and I am willing to take all the responsibilities, including fulfilling the court's decision," Xiao said to the court.

Responding to accusations of abandoning Dengdeng, Xiao said he went abroad in February 2015 and has been traveling between the United States and Australia. He lost contact with the care center after his Chinese phone number went down abroad and he lost the care center's number.

The auction caused huge attention online with almost 300,000 people expressing their intention to take part in the sale. Xiao said he contacted Chaoyang Court after hearing the news of Dengdeng being auctioned from his friends in China.

Auction page on Taobao./ Screenshot via Taobao

“With the enthusiastic attention of media and netizens, through online judicial auctions, Dengdeng's owner has voluntarily paid off all the arrears, implemented the effective judgment of the court in time, and made great progress in executing the case. The court will formally revoke the judicial auction after Mr Xiao collects Dengdeng,” said Zhang Wei, the executive judge for this case.