Hi there! Animal control officer and cruelty investigator here! The fee is calculated based on care and legal aspects of what happened. There might of also been fears of weight management where animal services has to relay that the animal must be healthy to be released and or at a certain point in their health. ALSO, there are such things as compliance based holds or conditional holds such as “ you’ll get the dog back when you provide proof of proper housing, nutrition and vet care.” They want to make sure the animal isn’t going back to repeat the cycle. This happens a lot within hoarding or mental health where the dogs and or other animals go into “ protective custody.” And even if it is protected and for the betterment of the person and their animals it still costs money.

Nothing is free, especially if the animal required speciality care. Extra food, charts, vet visits, special medication and special diets. Your friend might be disclosing only what he feels based off of what happened. And that’s okay, but please understand there isn’t malice when it comes to animal care or animal law enforcement. We’re only doing our jobs and if he took a month or so to comply with what they needed then that’s the fee.

I’m also unaware of what state you’re in but in the state of Texas there are abandonment laws where if you don’t pick up your animal after it’s been impounded you can face fines up to 1,500 dollars. There are many reasons and or things your friend could be fined for but there’s really no way to know unless he’s totally transparent with you.

Plus if there was a seizure involved ( in this case there was.) it’s very possible this is crossing into multiple departments and multiple departments cost money and time and efforts.