|
Reproduced from 'Shooting Gazette' supplement.
Gundog theft is one of those crimes that are enshrouded in an eerie mystique. A dog goes missing from a kennel in the middle of the night and all that is left in the morning is an open door. Sometimes there is a question mark over whether it has been stolen or simply escaped. On other occasions there is no doubt that a well-informed thief has been at work. Gundogs are stolen for various reasons and primarily by people who know what they are looking for. Whoever the culprit, the theft always leaves a distraught owner or trainer or both. But how much of this canine larceny goes on? There are various apocryphal tales that do the rounds each time a theft occurs, but what are the facts? Is there really a north/south division which reverses the infamous economic dichotomy?
The south of the country is certainly a hotbed of gundog theft. Major Mike Poffley is the secretary of the Bulford & Tidworth Garrison shoot and he brought the following case to our attention. On January 15 this year Pip, a cocker spaniel belonging to the headkeeper on the shoot, John Knight, was stolen from her kennel in Tidworth, Wiltshire. The circumstances of the theft were fairly baffling for all concerned. John's wife, Jenny, was in the house all night: "I was indoors knitting and I didn't hear a sound, which is very odd because our young dog usually barks at anyone or anything. In the morning I went out and Pip's kennel door was open but I assumed that she was with John. Although I did think it was a bit strange that the latch had been thrown on the ground because John would not usually do that. It wasn't until he came back that we realised she had been stolen. I can see the kennels from the house so whoever stole Pip must have been extremely quiet and careful."
Apart from offering a £500 reward for any information leading to Pip's safe return John was also keen that the incident should be brought to the public eye as a warning to others. Pip was stolen from a kennel that had two other spaniels in it. She has a good reputation and plenty of people had passed comment on her ability. Therefore there is a major concern that whoever took Pip knew exactly what they were looking for, and wanted her for breeding purposes. This concern was increased by the fact that she had only been working on one shoot during the season and hence was only seen by a select group of people. Pip has a distinctive habit of not jumping into vehicles, preferring to wriggle up to them on her belly and wait to be lifted on board. She is three years old and has a black head with a white blaze, and a white body flecked all over with black and grey. Anyone with any information should call John and Jenny Knight on 01980 846215.
The Knights are fortunate to have enlisted the help of a pet detective in their search for Pip. June Bailey investigates the disappearance of all animals but dogs take up a lot of her time. She estimates that there are around 500 gundog thefts in the south east every year. With reports of thefts from Hertfordshire, Oxfordshire, Buckinghamshire and Berkshire there certainly appears to be a Home Counties bias in the trend. English springer spaniels are the most frequently stolen. June has some clear ideas about how the dogs are stolen: 'There is a common theme in virtually every case I have investigated and that is roadworks. There have been roadworks very close to the scene of the crime in almost every case. I have been trying to find out if the councils in question have been employing gypsy tarmaceers." June thinks that thieves are using neuro-disturbers or tasers (stun guns) to knock the dogs out for five to 10 minutes when they steal them. This would explain how they seem to be able to steal dogs in silence. The stun guns are sold legally in France and America but not in this country.
June has been running the pet detective agency from her base in Sussex for eight years and she urges all gundog owners to exercise extreme caution in the kennelling of their dogs. Leaving a dog in an unlocked kennel is simply asking for trouble. For further information call 01903 772 176.
Bernard Hall has been chairman of the United Retriever Club since 1992 and he is on the general committee of the Kennel Club. As a Kent resident he believes that the problem of gundog theft is much worse in the south- east: "The main victims seem to be labradors and spaniels. I know of one woman who had her Labrador stolen when she was out walking it. She hid a dummy behind a wall to recreate a blind retrieve situation but the dog did not return and when she went to look for it, it had disappeared. The dog had been stolen but fortunately in that particular case the dog was found and returned. There is no doubt that many dogs are stolen to order, a well trained gundog is a valuable commodity. I know of a legitimate sale where a gundog was sold to a South African for œ10,000. The partial lifting of quarantine from March 1 will only make it easier for these dogs to be stolen and taken out of the country to be sold illegally in Europe."
There are regular reports of gundogs being stolen in this region with the finger being pointed at various culprits. Another case study illustrates the extent of the  problem. A family in the Southampton area had their two working cocker spaniels stolen. However they believed that the thieves were part of a group of itinerants living nearby. On raiding the camp with the police the two spaniels were spotted immediately and retrieved thanks to their tattoos, placed behind the ears. However earlier this year thieves struck again, taking the dogs in broad daylight from the two children who were looking after the animals. This time the family have had no luck in retrieving the pair.
There were a number of thefts in Bristol in 1999. There were also some incidents in Dorset at the same time as a series of sickening knife attacks on horses. Sheila Gussey, who is John Dryden's PA in the British Association for Shooting and Conservation's south-west regional office said: "I am on the committee of a local gundog club and I have not heard of any thefts over the past few months. Although it is a worry because, like most gundog owners, I keep my dogs in a kennel in the garden and they are vulnerable. In principle I think microchipping is an excellent idea, however it is not always financially viable when you are talking about more than one dog. Even at shows when the service tends to be offered at a discount it is still an expensive option if the risk of theft is actually low. I don't think that gundog people are microchipping in great numbers at the moment. It is more of a show dog thing for whatever reason."
Brian Beardsall of the Burghley Veterinary Clinic in Stamford, Lincolnshire said: "I have never really heard of any gundog theft in this area. But even so I am quite heavily in favour of microchipping for all animals; one of my "The real truth is probably less easy to bear, gundogs are stolen by people who know what they are looking for1." colleagues has recently had a lost cat returned to her thanks to chipping. Tattooing is probably a greater deterrent because it is so visible but people are put off it for the very same reason and because they perceive it as being slightly cruel. I also believe that in some cases people find it easier to claim that their dog has been stolen rather than admit that it has escaped through carelessness, bad training etc."
Meanwhile there is a very low incidence of gundog theft in the north of England and Scotland. BASC northern regional officer Phil Pugh, based in Gisburn, Lancashire, said: "I can't say that I have ever heard of any gundog theft in this area in the 10 years that I have been doing this job." Expert breeder and trainer, John Halsted, who also lives in Lancashire, said: "I cannot remember any gundog thefts in the north; there have been incidents involving greyhounds and other breeds but not gundogs. I know there is more of a problem with it in the south. I personally would not want to microchip my dogs. This is because I think there is a danger that when a dog dies the chip can be removed and used on another dog. At the moment none of my dogs are tattooed either, but I do think that it is a good idea and at about £12 a dog it is not too expensive. The marking can be done when the dogs' hips are scored. But as there is such a low risk of theft these security measures are not something I see as essential."
Gundog theft is rare in Scotland as well. Strathniore Working Gundog Club Secretary, Ian Christie said: "I cannot think of one single incident involving gundogs in the last 10 to 12 years. One good reason of course is that there is not the money in it up here. Down in England there are professional trainers and dogs change hands for large amounts of money so there is bound to be more theft. There was a big campaign a couple of years ago to get Scottish trainers to microchip their dogs but it didn't really work because no-one felt that their dogs were at risk."
So there is a fairly clear pattern emerging. The Home Counties area is heavily susceptible to theft while the further north from London you travel the less thefts there are. There are some clear reasons for this apparent regional anomaly. As Ian Christie pointed out there are few professional trainers in Scotland and so there is little money involved, hence the thieves are not interested. There are other factors though; the south-east is far and away the most densely populated area of the country and as a result crime of all types is high. While inner city crime is high in the north this type of rural theft is relatively rare. In the Home Counties rural crime is more widespread because there is a lot of wealth in the rural communities making them obvious targets for criminals.
Perhaps an even more convincing argument for this regional disparity is the proximity of the European mainland. A dog can be stolen and smuggled on to a ferry or the channel tunnel in the space of one hour. With a false pedigree the dog is as good as lost. Stealing a gundog and working it in this country is a risky business as the shooting community is alert and not so huge that new dogs and suspicious events can go unnoticed. Although dogs are stolen for breeding purposes at the notorious 'puppy farms'.
There is a regional divide, but who is doing the stealing? Suspicions are easily aroused but in many cases, even when the dogs are recovered the thief is often not discovered. It seems likely that the dog is often stolen to order. There is the usual finger pointing at gypsies; is this because they are an easy target or because there is no smoke without fire? What is certain is that they are responsible for some gundog theft, what is not certain is how much.
The real truth is probably less easy to bear. Gundogs are stolen by people who know what they are looking for... people who have inside knowledge. |
