Pet thefts rise as economy hits dog-gone low
Some dognappers are stealing pets for quick profit
by Kim Campbell Thornton
MSNBC contributor
updated 6:19 a.m. PT, Mon., July. 28, 2008
Kit Lofgren let her two dogs out in her front yard — on a small cul de sac of only nine homes in her somewhat rural neighborhood in Los Gatos, Calif. — and took her attention away from them briefly. When she turned back, the Labrador was still there, but Heikki, a 4-month-old Bernese mountain dog, had vanished.
Within minutes, Lofgren had neighbors combing the area, but the 11-pound puppy was nowhere to be found.
It was then that she and her neighbors remembered seeing the same man sitting in a truck on subsequent days.
It might not be up there with burglary or other types of property theft, but dognapping is on the rise, says American Kennel Club spokesperson Lisa Peterson, who tracks dog news around the country.
Police reports don't make a distinction between pet theft and other property theft, so there's no way to pinpoint the exact number of stolen pets each year, but anecdotally, officers say that pet theft is increasing this year.
"More people are reporting it ... and it seems to be occurring more frequently," says Lt. John Kerwick, president of the U.S. Police Canine Association, Region 7, New York, an organization of officers who work with police dogs.
In the first five months of 2008, the AKC noted three times as many dog thefts as the year before. (The organization tracked 30 from news reports and customers; the entire year before they only recorded 10.)
Stealing a dog to steal a beloved's heart?
Sometimes people steal a dog simply because it’s a cheap or easy way to acquire one, especially in a tanking economy, says Allan Reznik, editor-at-large for Dog World and a judge on the CBS TV show "Greatest American Dog."
“I’m sure the economy and hard times make people desperate and more brazen in terms of what they think they can get away with," Reznik says. "I think it’s easy to steal dogs and to dispose of them now because there are so many Web sites and outlets for selling a dog. If somebody were selling, say, a Cavalier
for $1,500 rather than $3,000, with no papers, there are a lot of people who would say ‘That’s a gift; I’m not going to ask questions.’ ”
Some dogs appear to be stolen to literally be given as gifts, says Peterson.
“A couple of these thefts that we tracked happened around Valentine’s Day earlier this year, so perhaps some people stole a puppy to give as a gift,” Peterson says. “Other people take them just because they want them for their own personal pet and they don’t want to pay for them or take the time to do it responsibly.”
Toy breeds, puppies, and purebred dogs that look expensive or unusual are most vulnerable, says Peterson. Among the stolen breeds tracked by the AKC in 2008 are Yorkshire terriers, poodles, Pomeranians, shih tzu, bulldogs, corgis, a Norwich terrier and a mastiff.
Plus, people increasingly view their pets as members of the family and are willing to cough up big rewards if they go missing.
“People realize that dogs have a street value, where they didn’t before,” Lofgren says. She believes Heikki was stolen because he was a puppy and because the thief knew he was an expensive dog.
Some thieves walk off with puppies from pet stores and animal shelters or take dogs tied up outside stores and coffee shops. Others break into cars where dogs have been left while their owners run an errand. Some have even posed as prospective puppy buyers to case breeders’ homes, breaking in later to snatch the dogs, says Peterson.
Two armed men forced their way into a Los Angeles home last year, ordered the family of four to lay on the floor and stole four Yorkshire terriers puppies and one adult dog. The puppies, valued at $2,500, had been advertised in a newspaper and the men initially posed as buyers. A little more than a week later one of the suspects later turned himself in and four of the dogs were reunited with their family while one puppy remained missing.
More at....
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/25852354/
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