Dog Thefts

There have been a lot of headlines around what appears a baffling crime in many ways. Baffling in that who is so irresponsible that they would buy an already full grown and probably traumatised dog for cash?

It’s clearly a very distressing crime and anyone who buys a dog, without being 100% clear about its provenance, is an absolute bell. Just get a rehomed dog or maybe, don’t bother if it’s so important to have a fashion statement for a pet.

 

It's hideous isn't it?
I've heard of a number of cases and signed a petition the other day to strengthen the sentencing/fines for such wickedness.

 

Sickening. I’ve got a couple of miniature Dachshunds, one a rescue and one I got as puppy who is nearly five. The puppy was expensive five years ago but some of them sell for ridiculous sums now, which makes them a prime target. It’s something I’m always very wary about, even leaving the house with them as you never know who might spot them.

As has been said, I don’t understand the mindset of the people who would buy an older dog, with no paper work or provenance thus supporting the cycle.

In the main vets are pretty good and they’ll always scan for a dogs chip every time the visit them to see if they’re stolen, however apparently the thieves have become adept at removing the chips.

The dog lost/Facebook community is also pretty good at trying to make dogs ‘too hot to handle’ with dogs sometimes being found a few years later.

One would hope that some sort of implant can be invented that would actually provide tracking information for the dog, I’ve no idea if that’s even plausible from a scientific/biological point of view but it would certainly help to solve the issue.

Of course not everyone will understand this, but for many dogs are part of the family and the people who steal them are the scum of the earth considering the heartbreak they can cause.

 

Where the h*ll are people going online to find such animals for sale in the first place?

 

I would have thought the Barking Gazette, but it turns out to be internet sites like pets4homes.
https://www.pets4homes.co.uk/

It would be buyer beware. Some of the ads raise an eyebrow, on the lines of I’m rehoming my gorgeous 5yr old boy to a good home. £1000.

If anyone is so broke they have to sell their beloved dog, then that’s really heartbreaking.

On the other side, lots of people advertising big money for certain breeds (usually the pug ugly ones) so you can see where the demand comes from and maybe how people are willing to be fooled.

 

Dogs are very much part of the family. We had to have our own put down a couple of weeks ago and it was extremely upsetting. I had suggested to my wife that to spare her the distress I'd go to the vets alone. She insisted on coming and I'm glad she did because the moment we entered the room where the deed was to be done, I sobbed openly! Dog thieves should be fed to a pack of wolves

 

Caravan Utilising Nomadic Tradespersons?
From elsewhere:
https://www.gloucestershirelive.co.uk/news/gloucester-news/poorly-dogs-seized-man-arrested-4999099
Just to make sure, the actual 'site' in question.

 

The ‘Pet Detectives’ say not the vast majority and it’s likely most of the buyers who receive the stolen dogs are not.

https://thepetdetectives.com/news_and_features/Where_Have_All_The_Stolen_Dogs_Gone

Not surprising that the dogs in your article were poorly looked after. It’s not a crime for a dog-lover.

 

Has anyone considered it could be a shadowy but powerful cabal of cats behind most of the thefts?

 

Dougal Siepp aks:

 

We had a Maine Coon kitten given to us about 10 years ago. Possibly the most intelligent animal I've ever had. Unfortunately she went missing from us around 5 years ago and I still believe she was taken.
But our crazy French bulldog would go off with anyone, she doesn't see danger at all, just the possibility of a new friend.
But agree with @a19tgg technology must be able to give us a chip with GPS surely.

 

Not guilty

 

It's particularly bizarre in the UK given the legal requirements for all dogs to be microchipped now. Any stolen pet should be easily identifiable and returned to the owners on after the first vet visit with the new "owners".

Means a lot of vets probably aren't observing proper microchip protocols.

 

There are weaknesses with this system. There are at least 11 different registers and vets are not obliged to check them. The thief could well bluff it out by saying the dog is not registered, so when the new owners take it for a first visit the vet puts another chip in without scanning for the first. Even if this is discovered later the vet may consider its not their business.

Less common, but does happen, is the removal of the chip, which doesn’t appear to usually go well. Sophisticated thieves may have access to the db’s to change the details. All you would need is one crooked individual to provide the log in or register on behalf of a practice. Probably on most occasions the thieves are not sophisticated at all, but are long gone before the issue is discovered.

Some thieves are also keeping stolen dogs to breed from. Those dogs won’t get any fancy vet treatment ever again and won’t be scanned.

 

Any vet I’ve used had been pretty hot on it, there are plenty of stories of the thieves cutting them out of dogs necks. All they need is one of the scanners the vets use to locate it.

 

That's not how protocol is set up.

Vets not sticking to that are breaking protocol. They are supposed to scan before putting a chip in, regardless of what the "owner" tells them. In fact, they're supposed to scan when any new animal is registered at the practice. The reason the snatchers get away with it is vets aren't doing what they're supposed to.

Easiest solution would be to enact law actually requiring them to check or be prosecuted.

Removing chips is not easy to do at all and requires surgery well beyond what the average person would be capable of performing.

The databases don't change owner info without supporting paperwork (or at least, that certainly used to be the case and I'd be surprised if it changed) so if the chips in line with recommendations the vast majority of thefts wouldn't go very far.

 

I'm sure there are stories about them, but I doubt most are true. Removing a chip is well beyond the average person's surgical skills.

 

As OP says, the most baffling thing about this is that there is apparently a resale market for the dogs. Or maybe there isn't and these vile criminals are em-barking on a fool's errand.

 

Lots of dog thefts here also
One dog stolen here was found in Britain and one found in Dublin with a gash on her neck where micro chip was removed.
It's mainly the ethnic minority community (halting site residents)who do such thefts, they simply have no morals what so ever

 

The road I live in, on one of the local farms, that is being used for scraped cars by a group of Albanian men, they found 5 dogs locked up in a container 2 weeks ago. Luckily one of the locals had heard dog barking and had called the RSPCA a few weeks earlier, they did a raid but nothing was found. The police kept an eye on the place and raided it again and this time a lucky strike. There were sings of a dog farm but the dogs in the container had been used for fighting, with one of the dogs in such a serious state that she will never be able to mix with humans again due to the stress. Of course, none of the workers could say who was using the container and there is lots of confusion on who owns the farm and who rents it exactly. In the mean time, the other dogs are on the mend, 2 had had chips removed and owners can't be found, but it continues to operate as a 'scrap' yard and whatever else is going on. A few of the locals have been keeping a very close eye on the place but it is fair to say the blokes working there are not very friendly. There must be networks of these sort of places, it's big money, both the breeding and gambling. The police managed to nick a few of the workers as there were 3 stolen vehicles in with the scrap, it's all linked unfortunately.

 

Horrible. My mum is a ridiculously ott dog lover, she’s involved with a few rehoming charities and carries out the home visits for potential new owners, she also helps with coordinating searches for lost dogs. She told me in situations like you described even when chips have been removed and it may have been a long while since they were stolen, they often still get reunited with their owners. The vast majority of dogs who get stolen are posted on doglost with loads of pictures and generally get shared by hundreds of people on things like Facebook. Basically as long as the owners put something on the Internet somewhere which most people will it will be easy enough to find. The people who end up with the dogs, whether that be the RSPCA or someone else generally go back through old posts for missing dogs and very often they come across a matching post even if it’s from several years ago.

 

Dog thefts don't just occur from a house or garden, thieves now follow vulnerable looking walkers and attack the owner and take the dog. It is a disgusting crime and should carry a heavy prison sentence.

Personally I've been taking precautions for some time now - I have cameras on the property, I keep an eye out for marks made on pavements / fences / walls outside the property, I wouldn't walk anywhere that doesn't feel safe, I don't engage with strangers when walking my dog, and I always have a phone on me. Shame we now have to live this way.

 

Rural crime copper from Dacorum on R4 at the moment. Very interesting as is the inventive euphemistic language used to avoid mentioning the Caravan Utilising Nomadic Tradespersons.

 

Ban dog ownership. Peoblem solved. And cat ownership too.

 

Why don't we just ban people instead? People seem to be the common denominator in all situations.

 

Who will enforce it?

 

I, for one, welcome our Skynet overlord.

 

Time for the robots to rise and takeover.

 

Cats would never stand for it. They need a species to control.

 

They set off fireworks randomly during the afternoon, and take note of where they hear barks coming from and return later to take the dog. Something to keep in mind if you hear fireworks going off randomly no time near Halloween or New Years.

 

Have we all had our Bill Gates Microchip "vaccine" yet?