AWL Releases Statement On Rumored Pet Abductions
By Darla McCammon
Executive Director, Animal Welfare League
According to social media we seem to be having an increase in pets coming up missing. I am getting more calls and emails than normal concerning this, and I do think we all need to be vigilant and cautious in the care of our pets, but..
According to statistics from our local police, there has been no great increase in stolen pets. And if there were increases that don’t get reported to the law, there could be several things happening to explain any increase. (1) coyotes are known to lure dogs into ambush. Our son-in-law recently had a scare when he had to chase coyotes away from his black lab, and the coyote population has increased. (2) someone could admire your pet and want it for themselves, (3) the pet could be stolen to make money—but you can watch for pet ads on places like Craig’s list and pets for sale to see if your pet appears there, (4) The pet could be sold to an illegal ring doing dog fighting—a horrible, horrible activity we all need to work to eradicate, (5) Some people suspect pets are being taken to be sold for medical research, but most of the research companies are reputable and use reputable vets and are careful to only take pets that have died from illness or accident and (6) the Pet could just have wandered away from home.
With all these possibilities, be sure you keep a close eye on your pet when you let it out and do not leave it in your vehicle unattended. Outdoor dogs are more susceptible. Our neighbor had a sturdy chain on a beautiful German Shepherd and the thieves brazenly went into their yard and cut the chain and took the dog.
I have discussed all this with our law enforcement and with animal control officers. All of them are watchful of any illegal activity, but remember, they can do nothing unless you report it. Sometimes people don’t think about contacting the police for a missing dog.
Also if you find a stray dog, please bring it to our shelter where we have a number of ways to identify many pets and other ways to make sure they are re-united with their true owner. Also, it is critical if your pet goes missing to call and give us a lost report.
We do not believe this is anything to be overly alarmed about, but because we all love our pets it is a little frightening at times to think about something happening to them.
I am excited about something we will have in the new shelter we will be building this year. We have included in our design plans a new feature that safeguards pets that may be left after hours. Since we are an open door shelter this is an important feature we wanted to be sure was included.
About our building: We are more than halfway to our goal financially, but we still need between $400,000 and $500,000 to bring this beautiful new sanctuary into existence for the benefit of both the pets and the people of our community.
If you want to help us continue to protect our pets, please send your contribution to Animal Welfare League, PO Box 1906, Warsaw.