Surge in dog thefts during lockdown

CHIEF  Supt Con Cadogan is warning dog owners to be extra vigilant following reported thefts of dogs in Clondrohid near Macroom last week, which he said is a national trend at the moment.

‘Obviously there’s a big demand for dogs and the price of dogs has gone way up, and the criminals are capitalising on it,’ Chief Supt Cadogan told
The Southern Star.

‘Last week three dogs were taken from a property in Clondrohid. Gardaí also searched a premises in Cork city last week where 22 dogs were seized and gardaí here will be liaising with them to see if any of them were stolen from West Cork.’

He confirmed that an alert had been issued for a van seen across the division acting suspiciously.

‘That van has been stopped on a number of occasions and searched by gardaí but nothing has been found.’

He added the Covid-19 pandemic may have led to the demand in dogs as people were spending more time at home and out walking and were looking for dogs.

‘Microchipping your dog is very important and if there are vans or cars acting suspiciously in any locations within the division they should be ringing it in to us.’

Gardaí noted an increase in the number of reports of dogs missing last week but a lot of them turned up  safe after they had been frightened by the thunder and lightning storms  that hit the region.

‘It certainly frightened a lot of dogs and people panicked and reported them missing but the majority of them showed up.’

Meanwhile, there was a happy ending for Chloe Dineen from Clondrohid, when she was thankfully re-united with her three dogs last week.

Her two cream poodles – Princess and Pearl – were wandering the streets of Tralee until they were eventually picked up by the Dog Pound, while someone drooped their whippet, Fifi into the family’s yard.