PETS SPIRITED AWAY

Southland Times, Issue 21362, 7 April 1931, Page 8

PETS SPIRITED AWAY

DOG STEALERS IN ENGLAND. CLEVER AND ASTUTE LEADER. Dog-thieving is on the increase in England. It has been revealed that there is an organization in the country which traffics solely in stolen dogs. A dog expert, discussing the dog-stealing business, said that the man behind the scene is very clever and astute. “Dogs stolen in the South of England,” he said, “will immediately be conveyed to the north for re-selling, and vice versa, or they will be taken to the continent, where there are, of course, no quarantine laws to hinder them. “The members of the organization nearly all seem to possess cars, and, of course, have a first class knowledge of dogs. Only well-bred dogs are stolen, and in cases where kennels have contained both prize winners and not so good dogs, the prize winners have gone and the others left. “Cairns, Scotties and Pekingese seem to be the favourite breeds for stealing:—Cairns and Scotties because they are greatly in demand just now, and Pekingese because they are popular in France and on the Continent generally. ' “The. daring of these, dog thieves is breath-taking. One case was that of a woman who left her Scottie tied to her child’s perambulator for a few seconds while she went to fetch something from the house. She heard a car stop, a yelp, and the roar of the car as it sped away. The lead had been cut with a knife.” There are two other classes of dog thief—the weak type, who will steal a dog just because it takes his fancy, and the man who will steal to “get even” over a personal grudge. The latter theft is by no means infrequent, and the chief victims are shopkeepers. '