Finn the dog may look like a hardened criminal on his way to “pup jail”, but the police say he won’t be charged with any crime despite being “arrested” after getting into trouble chasing a deer.
Finn has catapulted to social media fame after his human, Emme Thompson, snapped a photo of him in the back of an Ontario Provincial Police cruiser, looking a lot like a “perp”. The image quickly went viral on Twitter, garnering more than 700,000 interactions over the weekend.
“Someone called the police on my dog because he ran away and attacked a deer and i know this is serious but the sight of him in the cop car,” Emme tweeted, along with the photo.
The mischief began when the rescue dog was out with Emme’s dad on a walking trail in Kenora, Ontario in Canada. Finn caught scent of a deer and bolted off.
“They thought they would let him off the leash a little bit to run around, and I guess he caught the scent of a deer, because he just all of a sudden took off into the bush and was gone,” Emme told CBC News. “He wouldn’t listen to any calls or whistles.”
A few minutes later, the family got a call from Kenora police, saying they had Finn in custody. Emme came out and snapped the now viral photo. She later shared another photo of Finn, explaining he really is a good boy at heart.
Deer are a regular sight in the yards of Kenora residents, Emme explained to CBC. Finn, being a rescue dog from Northern Canada, probably grew up chasing them.
“We did get him from up north, and I’m sure he was running with a pack of dogs there,” she said. “That may have been where he learned to chase deer.”
“We certainly don’t encourage it,” Emme said. “He just can’t really help himself sometimes.”
Emme knows her town has bylaws that prohibit dogs from chasing deer and hoped that the worst that will happen is they get a fine. She added that as sad as it will be for Finn, he will have to be kept on leash from now on.
Ontario Police later confirmed with Canadian media that Finn was given a “stern warning” but otherwise his record has been cleared and the matter dropped.
But we have no doubt Finn’s “perp walk” will live on in Internet meme infamy.
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