Dog robbers-What is the world coming to?

There was an article on (UK) breakfast TV this morning about a dog being stolen at gunpoint whilst its owners walked it one night.
Apparently dog theft is a fast growing crime (40,000 / year !!!) -- see
http://www.gm.tv/index.cfm?articleid=15313

What is the world coming to

I know Its really scary. Luckily enough I recently had a free puppy pack when I went to the vets and in it is a 12 month free missing pets Bureau membership. Its good, instead of having your pet name and your contact details on ur pets name tag, you just put this Missing pets bureau tag, which has a free phone number and a identification number. This way the robbers, cant ring you up after they've stolen your dog and hold the dog to ransom. Its also good if your pet strays, cos my worry is if I put shadows name on her tag, and some one finds her, they'll keep her cos they'll know her name. If you report your pet stolen or missing, the M.P.B will send out faxes to local police and vets and dog wardens, its a really good scheme, especially cos its free for a year. If you want to join its £99 a year, which is well expensive, but i've seen one that the kennel club do and its only £15 to join and it does pretty much the same thing. Once my free membership runs out I'll be joining that, cos I read somewhere that staffies are the most stolen dogs, and shadow is a staffie pedigree, and I'd be heartbroken if someone stole her. They do this DNA matching this aswell, cos they told me the only way you can prove the dog is yours is through DNA (I thought that was rubbish myself), you take a DNA sample from your dogs mouth, send it off to them and they register it to you. Im gona have shadow microchipped soon, I think thats a good thing too.

"staffies are the most stolen dogs"

I had heard that too. This was on GMTV this morning (which I can watch here in Spain!)
I was really shocked by the scale of it all and the fact that in at least one case a gun had been used too!!

I think microchipping is great - here it is compulsory and you'll also need it if ever you travel abroad under the 'pet passport' scheme. You just keep your details up to date with the authorities and that will match the embedded microchip to your details whenever your dog is scanned.

What a shocking situation - I know dogs get kidnapped, but never realised it was such a problem. The bit about the thieves trying to dig the microchip out just made me shudder......Did the report say why staffies are the most stolen kind of dogs? I noticed that there were a lot on the Doglost site. Poor dogs & owners

That is soooo sad! I agree Martine the potato peeler thing made my stomach turn too!
Gus is Microshipped, like Bonnie for the pet passport scheme, Tattooed (This is the most recognised method in France), Registered both here and in the UK on a lost dog database, so if he goes missing here he will be able to be found and if he is lost in the UK while we are on holiday he will be found!

We also have the cat and all three horses microchipped! It pays to be cautious these days!

I like your quote Gustav, I love the Stereophonics, I saw them live in Swansea (South Wales) in 1999 on the Performance and cocktails tour. I live not far away from them now. In the valleys.

"Did the report say why staffies are the most stolen kind of dogs?"

It indicated that they are easy to sell on in pubs etc (as popular) and also maybe used for breeding....

It also mentioned that just before the dog featured on the TV report was taken at gunpoint an accomplice had struck up a conversation admiring the dog and finding out its pedigree etc

Nasty

Im always on my guard when walking my two out on a night.My Female is very Keen and will watch people she does not know Im glad as most will give us a wide Beth

I cant belive its gun point now First it was for Moblie phones now our beloved Pet
!!!God what is this world coming too!!!

Nice having dogs with the innate drive and ability to disarm someone!

This isn't going to go over well, but part of the reason it is so easy for these people to steal dogs like Staffies now is that we are having to literally over-socialize our dogs to make up for people being too stupid to treat them with the respect they warrant. A bit of stand-offishness isnt' necessarily a bad thing . . .

Not to disagree, but weren't the fighting breeds usually 1) bred to be fairly easy to handle by strangers (for obvious pit reasons) and 2) bred to be ok with changing ownership (for fairly obvious reasons to do with the nature of a dog's profession involving the owner using them in gambling) In other words, wouldn't it be easier to steal a fighting breed than, say, a GSD?

I totally agree Renee, here in France the laws are very different. If someone comes onto your property and your dog bites them, then it's their fault for being there in the first place! If someone breaks into your house it's the same thing, their fault again if they get mauled! After all it is their job!!! We do have dogs for protection, as well as companionship!! I am glad to say that I haven't met anyone here that hasn't asked first if it is ok to touch my dog before touching him, just like it ws in the UK when I was little, I was always told as a child to ask the owner if you can touch the dog before touching it as it may not be very friendly. They are still wary of dogs here and that's a good thing in my book! Our post lady rings my door bell and then backs away from the door and I have to go outside and shut the door before she will talk to me! Now i'm not saying that people should make their dogs vicious intentionally but I think it pays not to over socialise them! Just my 2 cents.

I could not agree with you more. That's why I'm not concerned about Peanut. She has a short fuse around strangers who I dont talk to, but she is adorable around family and friends. I think protection is a great trait to have instilled in dogs. I mean, wasnt that why the majority of dogs were originally bred for?

I know that if I were ever walking my girls, and someone like that tried to approach us, the girls would sense something and go into guard mode. I don't know of anyone who wants to mess with Colby when she's in that mode.

Can you imagine some idiot trying to hijack my three? And just think of the fun if someone did manage to get them into a car or a closed area . . .

Wow... I'm not really worried about this with Rocky.

Rocky's scared off 2 mail men and a lawn mower guy so far. And this was when he was small. Apparently, they came to close to his territory!

Rocky doesn't tolerate strangers, he'll warm up to you--eventually-- but he still EXTREMELY wary of strangers.

I like it, too. I was always concerned about having Rocky stolen cause my friend's baby Lab was stolen and he lives 5 houses down. I never have to worry about it with Rocky.