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!

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.

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