Imagine the scenario: You are taking Fido for a walk. You tie him to a lamp-post while you go briefly into a supermarket . When you come out again a few minutes later, he\u2019s gone. Possibly, he\u2019s managed to free himself and wandered off. But that\u2019s not usually the reason. According to the \u201cMore Than\u201d insurance company\u2019s \u201cPet Theft Census\u201d, 7% of stolen dogs are taken in this way \u2013 yet 22% of owners admit they leave their pet unattended while shopping. Quoting official police data, the Census warns that \u201cthieves are stealing cats and dogs from all over the UK at an alarming rate, at least three every day\u201d. In the case of dogs, 52% are snatched from their garden and 19% if they have been left alone at home: \u201cMore than half of owners believe the intruders broke in purely to kidnap their pet\u201d.<\/p>\n
So which dogs (and cats) are most at risk? In 2014 (its \u201cbusiest year so far\u201d) the \u201cDogs Lost\u201d organization registered 18,500 dogs as missing or abandoned It told the \u201cDaily Telegraph\u201d journalist Ben Leach that this\u00a0 \u201ccrime spree is being driven by the increasing popularity of certain breeds with celebrity owners, as well as by police reluctance to tackle it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Leach noted that there had been a big rise in the theft of cocker spaniels after the Duke & Duchess of Cambridge had adopted their puppy, Lupo, and that the cookery writer, Annabel Karmel, had to pay a \u00a3750 ransom to recover Hamilton, her Samoyed. Furthermore: \u201cIt is believed that some of the animals are being stolen to order, then sold to buyers in other parts of Britain, sometimes for more than \u00a32000\u201d.<\/p>\n
The \u201cIndependent\u201d has reported the \u201ctragic case of Dawn Maws from Barnsley\u201d whose German Shorthaired Pointer, Angel, was grabbed while she was loading her other dog into her car. She \u201cre-mortgaged her house to offer a \u00a310,000 reward and launched a campaign for her safe return that hit the national press. Sadly, despite all this and Angel being micro-chipped, she is still missing\u201d.<\/p>\n
The \u201cPet Population Report\u201d for 2014 compiled by the Pet Food Manufacturer\u2019s Association (PFMA) has revealed that there are now almost nine million dogs in Britain, owned by 25% of households. There are also eight million cats (17% of households), 20-25 million fish kept in tanks (9%), one million rabbits (2.4%) and 400,000 lizards (0.7%). The top five on \u201cMore Than\u2019s\u201d list of most stolen dogs are: Staffordshire Bull Terriers (15%) followed by Labradors (11%), Spaniels (8%), German Shepherds (8%) and Chihuanas(6%). At No.1 for cats is the Siamese (38%), then at positions two to five, Persian (33%), Ragdoll (11%), Maine Coon (10%) and Bengal(6%)<\/p>\n
How do the gangs decide which animals and houses to target? The \u201cCCTV.co.uk\u201d website believes that organised groups observe dogs while they are being exercised in parks, follow them and their owners home, then mark (for example) the gate with paint so as to identify them as potential victims.<\/p>\n
BBC News may have inadvertently provided these gangs with a great deal of useful information. On 18th<\/sup> January, their correspondents, Beth Rose and Andy Dangerfield\u201d, published on bbc.co.uk a \u201cDog Map\u201d showing\u00a0 by postcode \u2013 based on data issued by \u201cPetlog\u201d and \u201cAnimalCare\u201d \u2013 the breeds which have been \u201celectronically tagged most frequently during the past decade\u201d. Anyone clicking on (for instance) \u201cNorth London\u201d will be able to see immediately that in this area there are currently 3,400 Staffordshire Bull Terriers and 1,200 Jack Russell Terriers. If, on the other hand, they\u2019ve been instructed to acquire a few Labradors, then Peterborough \u2013 with 12,400 of them \u2013 could prove promising\u00a0 territory. In Swansea (Wales), there are 3,100 English Springer Spaniels and in Glasgow (Scotland), 2,900 Lhasa Apsos-.<\/p>\n Across the UK, there are more Labrador Retrievers (509,000) than any other breed, though as the Kennel Club Secretary, Caroline Kisko pointed out to BBC News , these are \u201cworking dogs\u201d and so tend to be more popular in rural areas. Staffordshire Bull Terriers (356,000) \u201care happy living in smaller homes and so are ideal for towns and cities\u201d. Jack Russell Terriers (376,000) \u201cappear to be man\u2019s best friend in places like Cornwall and south Wales\u201d and there is a \u201cglut of greyhounds\u201d in the Halifax region. Professor Lance Workman of the University of South Wales, who \u201chas researched the psychology of dog ownership\u201d is unconvinced about the advisability of \u201cthe recent London trend for dachsunds\u201d.He feels they may not be the best dogs for small flats as they are \u201clivelier than they look and can be a bit boisterous and aggressive\u201d.<\/p>\n There are of course other problems associated with pet ownership in addition to the concern that it might be stolen.\u00a0 As Helen Williams, Head of Sainsbury\u2019s pet insurance, emphasised to \u201cThis Is Money\u201d, it can involve a \u201csignificant financial commitment\u201d. This may amount to more than \u00a312,000 for dogs and \u00a311,000 for cats over a period of ten years and could explain why an increasing number of both have been abandoned during the recession.<\/p>\n In addition to basic costs such as pet food and veterinary fees, many owners have to pay someone to look after their pet when they are away or at work. The \u201cDog Walker\u201d pet care service charges \u00a38.50 for a 50 minute walk and \u00a34.50 if it\u2019s just 25 minutes. For \u201chouse sitting\u201d, the rate is \u00a335 per day and \u00a35 per visit for \u201ccat care\u201d \u2013 which includes \u201cfeeding, changing water and the cat litter, brushing if needed and administering\u00a0 medication\u201d.<\/p>\n Meanwhile: the Daily Mail has published the \u201cTop Ten Most Popular Male Puppy Names of 2014\u201d: Max, Charlie, Rocky, Buddy, Cooper, Duke, Bear, Zeus, Bentley and Toby. For female puppies: Bella, Daisy, Lucy, Sadie, Molly, Lola, Sophie, Zoey, Luna and Chloe. A BBC survey differs slightly, suggesting that the top five names for both cats and dogs are: Poppy, Alfie, Molly, Bella and Charlie.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Imagine the scenario: You are taking Fido for a walk. You tie him to a lamp-post while you go briefly into a supermarket . When you come out again a few minutes later, he\u2019s gone. Possibly, he\u2019s managed to free himself and wandered off. But that\u2019s not usually the reason. According to the \u201cMore Than\u201d […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-790","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-society"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/colindgordon.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/790","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/colindgordon.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/colindgordon.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/colindgordon.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/colindgordon.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=790"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/colindgordon.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/790\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":791,"href":"https:\/\/colindgordon.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/790\/revisions\/791"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/colindgordon.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=790"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/colindgordon.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=790"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/colindgordon.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=790"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}