Inside the dark world of dognapping
Hot Topics TalkLifestyle / Hot Topics Talk 2 weeks ago 38 Views 0 comments
It’s late at night, and a stranger walking down an alley sees your family dog sleeping on the porch inside your fenced yard. The stranger softly calls the dog over and begins to pet him. While checking to see if anyone is watching, he opens the gate, clips a leash to your dog’s collar and leads him away, never to be seen again. The next morning, your family is distraught; when a neighbor’s video surveillance reveals that your dog was stolen, you feel deeply violated.
While the emotions described are implied, the circumstances are not: Reports suggest that dog thefts are on the rise in the U.S..
Losing a pet can be devastating, and it’s a crime that has repercussions that go far beyond the animal’s financial value. Many dog owners view their dogs as members of their family; a 2020 study found that the loss of a pet can have a similar emotional impact to the loss of a loved one.
As criminologists, we wanted to better understand dognapping and dognappers, while pointing to some ways pet owners can keep their four-legged friends out of harm’s way.
Working with criminal justice researcher J. Mitchell Miller, we studied 82 incidents...
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