Suspect Dog Thieves

mickmcl09

2 weeks ago, my wife took the dogs for a walk. She returned with a lovely friendly JRT in tow.
We put him in the car and brought him back to the house from where he had followed - about 2km from our place.
Knocked at the door, as you do and a 16/17 year old answered the door. I hadn't even finished describing the dog and this was her answer, bear in mind she hadn't seen him yet as he was wandering around the side of the house.

'Oh, that dogs not ours, he's been around for the last few days. My dad is going to take a picture and put it up in the local shop'.
No pauses, no amming, just a straight answer.

A few dogs were out the back at the time. Needless to say I was immediately suspicious. Never thought to take a picture of the dog. Based on (IMO) the fact that these people also seemed fairly undesirable, I was just keen to get out of there ASAP.

I rested on this for almost a week. The neighbour had a stray staffie at her door. We never have strays up our way. But I was speculating that he might have been abandoned on the road.

Week further on. This evening the staffie is wandering outside the original house in question. No sign of the JRT, but there's 2 new JRTs on the scene.

I have reported my initial incident and the stray staffie to the ISPCA a week ago. I was told an inspector would ring me back - didn't happen.

This evening, I'm very suspicious given my sighting of the staffie wandering freely and 2 JRTs. No sign of the original fella though.

What would you do?
Call ISPCA again or Gardai this time.
I could be wrong, but somethings not right here.

Zapperzy

Go with your gut feeling and call the ispca and dog warden and explain to them, you could try the guards but really I can't see them taking much notice (even though they should as really if it was new tv's or cars going in and out of the house they'd be interested). And if you find a dog out wandering again bring it to a vet and ask them to check for a chip, at least if there is one registered you could contact the owner and ask what the story is, it could be that they buy dogs and sell them on all above board and legal.

are you serious

There's nothing there to call the gardai auout..

Call the warden or the ispca again

lovemydogs

Are you located in clare? Did you try to call Frankie Coote?He is the Clare ISPCA dog warden. His details are below:
http://www.clareanimalwelfare.net/html/dog_pound.html
Clare Dog Warden Details

Clare ISPCA Dog Warden

Mr Frankie Coote

0876225253

Co Clare Dog Pound Details

Clare County Dog Pound

Gort Road Industrial Estate

Ennis

Co Clare

0656820393

It all sounds a bit dodgey to me! Id contact the guards too if I were you. Even if they do nothing its worth a try?

unclebill98

Dogs are being stolen all over the country so do call the Gardai with your suspicions. They could call with the warden to give a heavier hand. Plus if this house owns the staffie, although possible not viscous is still classed as a dangerous breed and should not be out without a muzzle or owner younger than 16... That's the law regardless of the temperament of the Staffie.

ISDW

unclebill98 wrote: »

Dogs are being stolen all over the country so do call the Gardai with your suspicions. They could call with the warden to give a heavier hand. Plus if this house owns the staffie, although possible not viscous is still classed as a dangerous breed and should not be out without a muzzle or owner younger than 16... That's the law regardless of the temperament of the Staffie.

Its not classed as a dangerous breed at all. It is on a list of Restricted Breeds, the word dangerous forms no part of the legislation.