Crime that breaks families’ hearts – Family pets are stolen

EVERY week, 60 dogs are reported stolen in England and Wales, a figure likely to be much higher if you include theft by “pet finding” – when someone takes in a lost animal without trying to find its owner. Many are sold on or sent to churn out litters in miserable puppy farms as part of Britain’s lucrative £300million dog business. According to the Stolen and Missing Pets Alliance, more than half of stolen dogs are taken from gardens, 19 per cent during burglaries, and 16 per cent while on a walk. Justine Quirk, of DogLost, says the lost-and-found dog service is backing calls for a Pet Theft Reform Bill to revise the existing 1968 Theft Act and 2016 updated guidelines.

“Dogs are part of people’s families,” she says. “But currently, domestic pets aren’t mentioned in the legislation so the law treats dog theft like stealing an inanimate object, such as a mobile phone or food from a supermarket, despite the devastation it causes.

“The proposed changes would enable courts to issue harsher punishments to dog thieves, many of whom go to great lengths to change the appearance of a dog by clipping or dyeing its hair.

“Also, a person buying a dog from someone who’s found the animal and not reported it so it can be scanned for a microchip could be prosecuted for handling stolen goods.”

Sadly, only one-in-five missing dogs is ever reunited with its owner, despite some heartbroken victims devoting every spare moment and many thousand of pounds to finding their lost pet.

Here, four owners reveal the devastating emotional and financial cost of looking for their lost dogs…

WE WILL NEVER STOP HUNTING FOR WILLOW

Freya Woodhall, 44, owns a photography business with her husband Ross, 51. They live in Shropshire with their four children Maisie, 17, Torin, 15, Esme, 12, and Lola, 10. Amount spent: £4,000 and counting

She says: So far we’ve invested £4,000 – including a £1,000 reward – searching for Willow, our three-year-old missing sprocker spaniel. She disappeared on September 17 last year from our back garden while playing with our other dog, Saffy.

We live in a rural hamlet and the surrounding fields were full of farmers harvesting their crops and gamekeepers with pheasants in pens but nobody saw a thing.

Members of the local community have walked miles with us trying to find her, and we’ve got a huge following on social media.

Willow is dark brown with lighter brown-and-blonde patches and has a distinctive front left paw, with a tiny fourth pad.

We’re all heartbroken, especially my youngest daughter, Lola. She’d just started a new school last September where she didn’t know anyone so Willow was her main friend. It’s very unlike Willow just to wander off. She loved being fussed, followed me around the house, and always came back immediately when I whistled.

We’re aware of other dogs that have been taken locally, including one two days before Willow.

I’ve been contacted by various psychics who say Willow is still alive, and I certainly won’t give up looking for her until her natural lifespan – up to 15 years – has ended.

WE QUIT OUR JOBS TO SEARCH FOR DANA 

Michele Rodriguez, 51, is a payroll administrator and lives in Oxfordshire with her husband Paul, 52, a commercial vehicle technician, and their dogs Freddy, 14, and Mitzi, five. Their other dog, Dana, went missing in June 2016. Amount spent: £7,000

Michele says:We’ve spent at least £7,000 looking for Dana, more if you include our salary cuts. But the money’s irrelevant, we’d go to the ends of the earth to get her back.

Dana was the sweetest, most loving rescue dog who became part of our family in February 2016 and quickly bonded with our oldest dog, Freddy.

She went missing four months later when we left all the dogs with Paul’s dad one night in Langley, Berkshire, while we went out.

Within an hour of dropping them off, his dad called us to say that Dana had vanished from his garden.

For months we made the daily 75-mile round trip to Langley to retrace Dana’s steps.

Paul gave up his job as a mechanic to more time to the search and the following spring I left my job too.

We also postponed our wedding for 10 months because we were so upset.

A Get Dana Home campaign was set up on Facebook and Twitter and we gave out posters.

But the last genuine sighting of her was on the Grand Union Canal in Langley, Berkshire, a month after she disappeared.

We found paw prints in the mud that were hers – she was a cross breed with tan-and-white markings and distinctive spindly paws – but no sign of Dana.

ROSIE VANISHED ON OUR WEDDING DAY 

Angela Lowes, 33, owns holiday lodges with her husband Glen, 34, who also has sales and marketing business. They live in Northumberland. Amount spent: £3,000

She says: Over the past four months we’ve spent £3,000 searching for Rosie, our mixed-breed rescue dog, who went missing on our wedding day last November.

She was being looked after by a friend at her house along with our other dog, Rollo.

After a wonderful wedding, we were getting ready to leave the venue the next morning when my friend called to say Rosie had escaped and they’d been looking for her for hours.

Distraught, we spent the day in the fields searching for her, along with many of our wedding guests. Since then we’ve printed posters and leaflets, put night vision cameras up at home and have a Facebook group called Find Rosie.

She is the softest, most loving dog. We’ve been through every scenario of what could have happened to her, including whether she’s has gone to ground. But we suspect theft because of the sheer lack of sightings.

Her bed, toys and food bowls are where they were when she disappeared. She means the world to us and we’d give anything to have her back.

WE WONDER CONSTANTLY IF TILLY IS ALIVE 

Victoria Calcutt, 49, lives in Long Hanborough, Oxfordshire, and owns a hospitality sales training company. She’s married to Simon, 46, an electrician, and they have an eight-year-old daughter. Amount spent: £3,500 

She says: It’s six months since our gorgeous Tibetan terrier, Tilly, disappeared, since when we’ve spent £3,500 on posters and flyers, a professional dog tracker and wildlife cameras in the garden.

We’re also offering a substantial finder’s fee – DogLost advised us not to reveal the amount or call it a reward to avoid hoaxes.

Tilly’s about the size of a fox, has been spayed (so she can’t be used for breeding) and was long-haired and bearded but will look different if she’s been clipped.

She disappeared on September 15 last year after being spooked by a pack of eight loose dogs that surrounded her when I was walking her in the fields behind our house.

She took flight, and ran three-and-a-half miles to the village of North Leigh where three witnesses tried to catch her in a garden.

Thames Valley Police interviewed two of them, who claim she ran off into woodland, but we’ve never traced the third person, a young man of about 20.

I constantly wonder whether Tilly’s alive and cared for. So many people have said to me: “She’s a dog, she’ll survive!” We got Tilly as a three-month-old puppy in January 2011 when our daughter was a baby, and she used to sleep at the end of our bed.

Even now I can’t move her blanket and Simon and I are both incredibly upset as we really don’t know what else to do.

If anyone has information on the possible whereabouts of Tilly, Willow, Rosie or Dana, they should contact DogLost on 0844 800 3220.

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