Who actually owned Scooby Doo?

I'm not talking about which studio or production company I'm talking about on the show. who owned Scooby Doo?

I've pretty much grown up with the show and saw most of the different incarnations of the show and I've always wondered this. I think I heard somewhere that HB was asked this once and the answer was that Velma actually owned Scooby. and I have personally felt this as well. (Partially because Velma was always my favorite character on the show because I found it easier to enjoy and understand it if I centered the show around her.)it made a lot of sense to me because of how I interpreted the show:

the whole Mystery Inc. business concept was probably Velma's Idea. she's the smartest of the group and more into it than the others.

Fred was to me like the friend that everyone hung out with because they had something that you wanted access to. (you know that friend that has the only computer at home, has the best TV and you wanna watch it. etc.) In this case he has a cool van and also he is quite handsome, a charmer, confident in himself and smart as well - but not as much as her. she needs him because no one will accept her as a woman who solves mysteries for them so she gets him as a front because people will accept him as a leader more easily than Velma. Fred, you could say is everything Velma is not but might wish she was.

Daphne seems to be Fred's GF/BF who just follows him wherever he goes. they probably have known each other their whole lives and were probably high school sweethearts/prom King & Queen. she might've joined Mystery Inc. when Fred insisted that she join as well or he leaves. Velma agrees an eventually they in fact become friends mainly because Velma has hardly no friends much less female friends.

Shaggy is probably Velma's Best Friend period. they probably have known each other their entire lives or became friends out of necessity because everyone else shunned them out. they were always there for one another and had a connection like a brother and sister. and like Daphne, he joined the group basically to follow her wherever she goes because he has nothing and she had this really awesome dog.

Scooby was the Mascot of the group. and unlike Shaggy who treated Scooby like he was his only friend in the world and who was able to teach the dog to basically act like him; Velma treated him like a dog she has owned since he was given to her as a gift when she was really young and took him wherever she went as one of the few possessions from her life before she left home that she wants to hold near a dear to her heart. because like Shaggy, her early life wasn't good at all and Scooby and Shaggy were the only things that she felt genuinely cared about her and she them.

I always felt that all the gang came from rich families but Velma's was probably the lowest of the spectrum. they were probably upper middle class whereas the rest where definitely form the high end of the scale. but the rest hung around her because she was the smartest and they mooched off her to get through high school. and she had this really cool dog. and least that is how I always thought it worked.

But I also thought for awhile that Scooby was really Just a figment everybody else's imagination.

And I also thought that Velma was deep into the closet and the reason she was so shy and impersonal was that she was so self conscious about it.

paid for by the Catherine Bell & Carla Gugino campaign for President and Vice President.