Pet Theft Up 50 Percent Since Last Year: Evidence of a Downed Economy or Utter Depravity?

[xchrom]

http://www.alternet.org/economy/152865/pet_theft_up_50_percent_since_last_year%3A_evidence_of_a_downed_economy_or_utter_depravity

October 25, 2011 |

Stolen somewhere in New Jersey, a pitbull mix and a bulldog were found in a Newark cemetery tied to headstones, badly hurt, their faces and throats slashed with boxcutters. The pair had been used as bait for fighter dogs in training, their faces cut to give the fighter dogs a taste for blood.

Dogs vanish every day from yards, homes, shops, sidewalks, shelters, and cars.

"The owners think their pets escaped. But no," says Associated Humane Societies executive director Roseann Trezza, who rescued the Newark pair. "Unless you see someone taking a pet, you can't say for sure it was stolen. And nobody wants to believe their pet was stolen. They'd rather think it escaped."

"In this economy, it's a way to make money," Trezza says. "Someone steals a cocker spaniel or a Maltese and they can sell it in their neighborhood for $50 or $100. Dog-fighting rings always need bait."

[MadHound]

1. It's not just dog fighters out there stealing people's dogs,

But research labs and various corporate labs. After all, gotta have test subjects, and the pound usually only allows so many adaptions per person.

[eShirl]

4. You'd think a research lab would breed their own.

[MadHound]

5. Why go to the expense of breeding when you can buy them cheaper on the street

Research labs don't need pure dog breeds, just dogs that they can work on.

[eShirl]

8. I dunno, controlling variables in a study?

[adigal]

6. In the south, labs can buy dogs and cats

I know things I wish I didn't know after 4 years of dog rescue. Nightmares.

[MadHound]

7. Not just the South

That is legal in a lot of states. Even in states where it isn't legal, there is a thriving underground trade in stolen pets, a trade whose roots lead right back to various research labs.

[Walk away]

2. Can you imagine what it must feel like to lose a pet and worry that this...

could be happening to them? Terrifying!

[geek tragedy]

3. Utter depravity. nt