Dog Theft?

[Dave]

I was walking my dog in a usual spot, where he sometimes plays with a greyhound. Met the owner yesterday, who was completely heartbroken.
He has CCTV in his garden, but apparently whilst he was in, two hooded fellas simply walked into his back garden, picked the dog up, and walked out then drove off with it.
He was beside himself. Cant sleep. Said it was like having a member of your family stolen. Its the not knowing which is killing him.

I've also noticed a large increase in posters up in woods, and one fellow I stop to talk to regularly told me he's found chalk marks outside his house, marking his house as having dogs.

One of the dogs on the posters was found mauled to death at the bottom of a quarry.

Terrible. Im getting a bit paranoid about leaving ours alone, as he's that friendly he'd probably walk off wagging his tail with anyone.

Apparently there has been a 20% rise in Dog theft since last year.

This never used to happen did it.....what the hecks going on?

 

[Robbi]

Where abouts are you Dave ?

 

[Dave]

West Yorkshire

 

[dewi]

If its dog fighting the dogs are being taken for, unfortunately its been going on for a long time... there used to be a regular spot in Liverpool about 25 years ago... if a dog didn't have an opponent, they'd take a stray off the street and throw it in.

The police have a unit that specialises in this type of thing, but you don't see them busting the fights as often as they used to... maybe its lack of reporting, or the fact that the fights are now held in different locations all the time.

 

[Robbi]

Yeah, I would have gone for the dog fighting scenario as well but a Greyhound is a weird choice for fighting, more likely travelers stealing it to sell as a lamping dog.

 

[Dave]

I didnt say anything, but apparently they are also taken for meat now as well as fighting, ransom, etc....our society gets worse by the month it seems!

 

[dewi]

Greyhound does seem like an odd choice for dog fighting, unless the people who were watching were particularly sick.

Sounds to me like they've 'picked' the dog... and as no demands have been made, its either a dog stolen to order... or somebodies sick idea of good viewing for a dog fight.

Very little meat on a greyhound... but then again, I don't know what they taste like.

 

[Dave]

I hope Robbis right that its gonna be used for coursing, that would seem to make sense. But still, awful.

The quicker they come up with a little gps you can put under their skin the better.

 

[dewi]

Ahh... missed that bit. Could very well be.

Its not nice... but then stuff like this seems to be happening all the time now. A fella locally committed suicide this week by walking on the train track crossing... same crossing I use when I'm out walking. Turns out he'd been secretly torturing his ex-girlfriends dog... when it was revealed what he was doing, he committed suicide.

Bizarre world we live in.

 

[Robbi]

Now there's a money making idea........"where's my dog app"

 

[Dave]

The tech must be just around the corner...

 

[Adze]

A GPS receiver would tell the chip under the skin where it is, but it can't transmit to tell you.

The 'wheresmymobile' stuff for your phone uses the GSM network or a WiFi connection to upload the data to the Internet so you can view it - currently this is a bit larger, physically, than you could comfortably inject under the skin of an animal, or human come to that. Think along the lines of the radio tracking collars they use to track wildlife.

Battery will be the limiting factor for any tech like this - the identichips are near field devices and therefore passive, you don't need a power supply, they're activated by the scanner which then reads them. To transmit or receive all the time you'd need a power source and a way of keeping it charged.

 

[Robbi]

wave power type generator powered by the heart

 

[Adze]

Something along the lines of the Citizen Eco-drive system might be a bit less, err... invasive. Or perhaps something thermal, there's an obvious disadvantage to either of these though.

 

[nuggets]

paint them illuminous green

 

[woof]

Greyhounds/lurchers/saluki's etc are taken for coursing, & dumped if not up to it, older dogs mixed breeds etc are for fighting as bait, bull breeds as fighters, gun dog breeds taken to be sold on to foreign & sometimes not so foreign government agencies to train as sniffer dogs, same with the guarding breeds, toy breeds/lap dogs sold on as fashion items, & as has been said there is the food market.
Don't leave your gate unlocked, don't leave your dog in the garden when you go out, don't leave your dog unattended when you do go out with him/her, & you have to now be aware when walking them, of being approached by people who just want " to look at your dog".
Its a sad bad world out there, look after your friend.

Rob

 

[mousey]

Even up here there have been reports of dog's being taken from gardens. I live on a steep hill with no access at the back [Unless you want to climb 30 odd foot] and a tall locked gate at the side.

I've also heard of vans pulling along side people walking their dogs and snatching them!

More worryingly for me is people who deliberately put poisoned food down for dogs - you have to be careful what they are snaffeling on a walk these days.

 

[Silverback 1]

Reading this thread literally sickens me to the core.
As an owner of 2 ex track dogs I cannot begin to imagine what the guy must be going through, it is just terrible.
And as for the perpetrators.........................