Ah, yes, some things cut both ways. Find a puppy and refuse to turn it over and you may get fined $750 in New Zealand! Did you notice how their media put that "poor little rescuer being punished" spin on the article? Uh, excuse me. Ya go around saying the puppy isn't yours and asking for help to find the owner and discover there's a legal process for the item of property to go through (animal control) and then want to pretend that "finders, keepers" is the law of the land. No, I don't believe this "went down" quite as the finder of the puppy describes. I'll bet Sue told the animal control officials NO in no uncertain terms and may have slammed the door in their faces.
Certainly legitimate owners have more rights to their animals than a mere "finder" of one and yet theirs get snatched up all the time. Why on earth would a "finder" think they had any rights whatsoever to a found puppy?
Now I'm only wondering if the New Zealand animal control was intending to try to return the puppy to the rightful owner or if cute little puppies bring in the highest adoption fees for them as is the case in the US.
To consider oneself above both the letter and spirit of the law is to be a mere Samaritan, not a good Samaritan; at least according to the Christian Gospels. Not being a Christian, I think I'll just view Sue as a wanna be thief, disregarding the law and the rights of another person.
You wanna be rescuers out there should tread carefully. You could well cross the line into trespassing, thievery, and a number of other criminal activities quite easily (if you haven't already).