Jump directly to the Content
Jump directly to the Content

Sermon Illustrations

Home > Sermon Illustrations

Kennel Owners Lie to Cover up Truth about Dog's Death

Dog owner Peggy Ranger dropped off her six-year-old Shih Tzu at Montreal Dogs, a popular day care for dogs whose owners need to leave town for a few hours or days. Stanley, Peggy Ranger's Shih Tzu, weighed eight pounds.

Peggy Ranger only needed Stanley looked after for a few hours. Soon after dropping him off, Peggy got an urgent call from Montreal Dogs telling her that her dog had run away. For a full week the owners and employees at Montreal Dogs searched for Stanley. So did Peggy's family and friends. They put up over 400 posters offering a $5,000 reward. They looked under cars, around dumpsters and the nearby railroad tracks. They put up notices online and in local newspapers. The owners phoned Peggy every day offering her encouragement and support.

Peggy's sister told the media: "We went through hell, thinking somebody had kidnapped him, sold him to a pharmaceutical company, all the terrible things you think about when a dog is lost."

After a week Peggy called a non-profit pet retrieval and rescue organization for help. Once they told the Montreal Dogs owners they would bring in a special tracking dog, and would be looking at the surveillance tapes from a business across the street that had the front entrance of Montreal Dogs in view, the owners finally confessed that they had lied about Stanley's "escape."

In reality, Stanley had been mauled to death by at least four large dogs. The owners told reporters they had lied to spare Peggy Ranger the pain of knowing her dog had suffered such a horrific death.

Peggy is suing the company. The owners of Montreal Dogs told the media, "In retrospect, it would have been best to tell the truth."

Related Sermon Illustrations

It's Harder to Deceive an Honest Person

"You speak the truth, that is plain: the Men of the Mark [that is, the men of Rohan] do not lie, and therefore they are not easily deceived."

—Eomer, a military leader ...

[Read More]

'In The Heart of the Sea'—A Seaman's Integrity

Based on actual events, In The Heart of the Sea is a 2015 recounting of a New England whaling ship's sinking by a colossal white whale in 1820. The disaster would inspire Herman Melville's ...

[Read More]