If anyone's interested I saw this good lockable leash idea to stop precious pets from being stolen when outdoors. Scroll down to bottom. Apparently it's a big profitable crime !! Unbelievable....  :(

http://www.snugglesafe.co.uk/cgi/acatalog/sh000001.pl?REFPAGE=http%3a%2f%2fwww%2esnugglesafe%2eco%2euk%2f&WD=micro%20towels%20fibre&SHOP=%20&PREVQUERY=SS%3dmicro%2bfibre%2btowels%26PR%3d%2d1%26TB%3dA%26Search%3dSearch%26SHOP%3d%20&PN=grooming_products%2ehtml%23aLC606d#aLC606d

unfortuntely, dog theft is indeed a profitable crime. My Pitbull X English mastiff was stolen a few years ago. She was later found, after the aspca raided a dog fighter's house. She had to be put down, because she'd become so viscious.  I wish I'd had a locking leash back then!

Really sorry to hear that. I know how you must have felt as I love pets more than anything.

It's so hard to follow - do they try to sell them.... ?

A lot of times they either sell purebreds, or use them for breeding, often using forged papers or ones from another dog to register the puppies. The 'traditional' fighting breeds (pitbulls, Mastiffs, rottweilers, etc.) are often stolen and trained to fight, or used for breeding to produce fighting puppies if the dog taken has too sweet a disposition. That was the case with Tigger. They made her as mean as possible, but it wasn't enough for a good fighter, apparently, so they used her to pump out trainable puppies. My poor baby. Honestly, I think that pet theft, and dog fighting should be at least federal felonies, if not a capital crime. But that's just me, I suppose. I've also had a few cats taken right from my own home. I'm pretty sure they were taken for the sheer fact that they were pretty and the suspects ( I'm fairly sure I know who took Gizmo and Shadow, at least) refused to take, "no you can't have my pet" for an answer.

i had a beagle puppy stolen from my backyard when i was little.  my first dog!!  :'(  :'(
i saw him about 8 months later in the back of someone's truck going through town.  the guy was wearing an orange vest and camo hat.  i WONDER what he took my dog for......

when we had my dog shipped to hawaii, my parents had to drop him off at the detroit airport, then he had to switch planes in minneapolis... i was SO scared he would get stolen and sold for fighting.  he's a 155 lb. unneutered american bulldog and i had about 75 offers from weird people to buy him when i lived in detroit.  

Arcadian, Thanks for the link!! There's some neat stuff there inculding a heating pad my 14 year old bunny would love! :)

Lisabelle wrote on May 13^th, 2007 at 8:30am:

Arcadian, Thanks for the link!! There's some neat stuff there inculding a heating pad my 14 year old bunny would love! :)

Oh that's good ! Though I never dreamed I'd one day be buying a dog towel for my own hair on here !! :D