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Pedigrees targeted in dognappings
Jan 23 2004
By Emma Pinch, Birmingham Post
Pedigree dogs in Warwickshire villages are being targeted by thieves for use as breeding animals or to be ransomed back to their owners.
Last weekend, three pets vanished from Henley in Arden and vets in Solihull warned that dognapping was on the increase.
It is believed the animals, often young running varieties, are taken to be sold or used for coursing and breeding. Thieves who find it impossible to sell them will often ransom them back to their owners.
Two of Andie Hawkes dogs - a black lurcher and a brown pedigree working cocker spaniel - vanished close to her home in Lowsonford, near Lapworth, on Sunday at about 2.30pm. The previous day, a yellow pedigree labrador went missing from its outside kennel in Preston Bagot, near Henley.
She said: The small black lurcher bitch is worth peanuts financially but she is a childrens dog and means the world to me. We searched everywhere and they were too big to go down rabbit holes. I think somebody came to pick them up. Dogs dont just disappear like that.
Another dognapping victim, Libby Mander, saw her saluki being snatched from her garden in Meriden.
I watched it happen, she said. These people had asked my husband and I for directions and hung around when the dog was bounding around the drive.
I saw them reach in and grab our saluki and drive off in a car which was hidden around the corner. We dont know how they knew we had this puppy.
Roland Robson, a partner at the 608 veterinary practice in Solihull, who has also fallen victim to dog thieves, said more clients were reporting canine thefts to him.
His pedigree boxer bitch was stolen from his car as he and his wife visited one of Birminghams Balti restaurants in Sparkbrook.
He said: When we returned to the car after two hours - checking on it every half hour - the window was smashed and the dog had gone. Nothing else was taken, not even the car stereo.
