Dognapping becomes another way to get money from pet-lovers

Stories about terrorists and kidnapped people have become quite a usual thing. However today we face a new phenomenon in the history of crimes – “dognapping”. This crime has become especially popular in Great Britain this year. Dognapping can soon spread around the world, because it is a very profitable illegal way of getting money. At the same time it is very difficult for police to bring criminals to justice.

	Dognapping
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For many victims, the first they know of becoming part of one of Britain's growing crime trends is an anonymous call or text message offering help in finding their missing cat or dog.

Within hours, the animal, whose missing status has often been advertised on neighbourhood lampposts with the offer of a reward for its return, is found and a rendezvous set up to exchange the pet for cash.

According to research published yesterday, this a scenario played out with increasing frequency across Britain as 520 cats and dogs go missing every day, with dozens from that figure feared stolen.

The Missing Pets Bureau (MPB), which helps to trace missing or stolen animals, said it had seen cases of dog theft double in the past 12 months, with an accompanying increase in ransom demands and evidence of stolen pedigree pets being sold on.

"Dognapping" rose by 141 per cent last year to 300 cases a year, according to the MPB. Another charity, DogLost, estimates that about 80 per cent of the 1,300 cases it deals with involve suspicious circumstances.

The MPB, which only treats a missing animal as stolen if it has been registered by police, said it was convinced that there is now a market based on the theft of domestic pets. In one recent case, investigators found a private "dog auction" was being held in Essex to sell pets, many of them suspected to have been stolen.

Simon Worsfold, the director of the MPB, said: "The problem has grown from only a few hundred cases a year to several hundred every week. Stealing a pet is seen as a way of making easy money. When the animal is a pedigree, more often than not it will never be seen again by the owner because it is sold on.

"But there is also a growing problem with dogs being stolen by people who then return when the owner puts up a reward poster and say they simply found the dog or bought it from someone else."

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