Rings of steel: dog owners buy metal collars to deter thieves
A spate of dognapping in current months has led to rising numbers of owners shopping for lockable, steel-core collars and leads that can not be severed by bolt cutters as they stroll their pets.
Dog theft has risen as animals out there to buy have turn into scarcer for the reason that pandemic started. The common value of a pet doubled to practically £1,900 final yr, and a few breeds are value greater than £6,000.
Last week Lady Gaga’s dog walker was shot within the chest in Los Angeles and robbed of the singer’s two French bulldogs. Meanwhile, the charity DogLost says that the quantity of canines stolen within the UK greater than doubled final yr.
British pet owners at the moment are taking elaborate measures to keep away from dropping their canines, together with placing up larger backyard fences, shopping for GPS trackers and utilizing gadgets equivalent to Petloc, a lead with two mixture locks (attaching it to the collar at one finish and a wristband or belt on the different) and comprised of a metal cable inside a tricky plastic cowl.
Yarah David, who based the corporate behind Petloc, stories a fourfold improve in gross sales of the £50 lead up to now this yr.
“I can’t believe how many calls we’ve had over the last three or four weeks,” she mentioned. “It’s horrifying. I designed the lead to stop dogs being taken from cars or outside shops. Now they’re being stolen from people who are out walking. I’m being asked, ‘what do I do if they yank the lead out of my hand?’”
Her prospects are attempting to keep away from this taking place by locking the lead to their very own our bodies, both utilizing a belt or a bicycle harness to safe one of the mixture locks, David mentioned. The lead can solely be minimize with bolt cutters, she added.
David is now working with a monitoring firm to create a model of Petloc with a GPS tracker within the collar.
“It’s all word of mouth,” she mentioned. “I don’t advertise – we’re not even on social media. I’m an interior designer and I only designed this because there was nothing else available.”
Dognapping, she says, is “ruining people’s lives because they worry about simply going out to walk their dogs. For people it has happened to, it’s years of trauma.”
Owners supply ever bigger “rewards” for his or her pets’ return. Lady Gaga provided $500,000 for Koji and Gustav, taken by robbers after a battle along with her walker, Ryan Fischer. The canines have been returned on Friday night when a lady walked right into a Los Angeles police station with them. Police mentioned the lady “appeared to be uninvolved”.
Some pet owners consider providing giant rewards might encourage copycat dog thefts.
Campaigners together with the Stolen and Missing Pets Alliance have referred to as for pet theft to be made a particular offence, with stiffer punishment than for the theft of property. The UK authorities has mentioned it’s altering the legislation.
There are additionally calls to reform the present system of pet microchipping to enhance the possibilities of reuniting stolen pets with their owners. Although all canines should be implanted with a microchip, there are no less than 14 totally different microchip registration programs, in accordance to the British Veterinary Association’s senior vice-president, Daniella Dos Santos.
“It’s possible to register on two separate databases,” she mentioned. “We want there to be a single point of entry.” Pet owners typically don’t replace their particulars in the event that they transfer home, she added.
The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs just lately held a session about altering the foundations round microchipping.
