The story of Chocco, the dog stolen near Fort St John, British Columbia, has uncovered an issue that requires attention from those who own pets.
Within 10 days of Chocco’s story being posted and the launch of the Facebook Page Stolen Dogs 911, the story spread across Facebook with a post reach of more than 200,000 Facebook users. A look around the world shows a growing trend in the incidence of dog theft:
Australia
US
The British Pet Theft Census found that 20% of pet owners had experienced theft of a pet in their lives and only 54% were able to track down their pet. On the issue of tougher penalties for pet thieves, one pet owner stated “Pets are not inanimate objects like TV’s or computers, they are our family members that are being stolen”.
Existing service providers in most communities have limited resources to commit to pet theft or dangerous and disruptive animals. For this reason, PetLynx Corporation has agreed to support stakeholders in Fort St John as they develop a pilot program that will:
- Identify and register every pet at risk in the Peace Country.
- Develop a peer to peer based program called HomeSafe Guardian™ that is patterned on ideas learned in ChildFind, Block Watch and Citizens on Patrol and is intended to increase the resources committed to eliminating stolen/lost dogs and other pets in communities.
- Develop a funding model for supporting research of these issues
- Develop a funding model for supplying resources to the Alliance for Urban Animals and the HomeSafe Guardian™ program
- Create a template that can be replicated in the estimated 3,400 communities across North America that have similar needs.
Anna MacNeil-Allcock from PetLynx Corporation and Summit Alumni Bonnie Isenberg from Fort St. John, Bylaw Services, have been asked to champion this development.
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