Image source, Tom Darby/BBC
Owners are encouraged not to leave dogs outside by themselves for extended periods
Four out of every 5 dogs reported taken to Kent Police over the last 5 years are still missing out on, according to information obtained by the BBC.
Some 680 dogs were reported taken in between 2018-2022, however just 147 were discovered.
Kent Police said it would do all it might to reunite victims with their animals, and recognize the criminals.
Supt Pete Steenhuis said: “Last year in around 30% of the cases we had the ability to reunite owners with their dogs”.
He included: “They are either gotten rid of out of the county rapidly, or in some cases out of the nation rapidly, that makes it difficult to recuperate professional types.”
There has actually been a constant boost in dog thefts in Kent, in 2018 there were 108 reports, which increased by 59% to 172 in 2022.
Mr Steenhuis said opportunist burglars and organised criminal activity groups targeted specific dogs.
“Make sure that if your dog is left in the garden, it’s not neglected alone for an extended period of time, that you have actually got security lighting and CCTV to safeguard your facilities,” he said.
Dogs ‘not financial things’
Dr Daniel Allen, a speaker in human location at Keele University and the co-founder of Pet Theft Reform, said: “It will guarantee taken animals are considered sentient beings and they are not just viewed as financial things.
“It will permit courts to access a 5 year optimum sentence for kidnaping animals”.
A federal government representative said: “We introduced the Pet Theft Taskforce and are executing its suggestions that include the production of a brand-new family pet kidnapping offense; determining and tracking cases of family pet theft; and microchipping reform to reinforce the procedure of moving keepership and avoid the production of replicate records.”
