Cooked chicken used to lure dogs

11:00am Friday 9th May 2008

TWO children are devastated after thieves stole their pets by luring them with cooked chicken.

Debo, a two-year-old rottweiler, and Burt, a 14-month-old terrier, were stolen from Valley View Stables, Trimdon Village, County Durham, where they stayed while their owners were at school and work.

Owner Andrea Scott, a dog groomer, said she found chicken legs at the end of each dog's lead when she went to collect them on Tuesday.

She said the dogs were loved by the whole family, but daughters Siobhan, nine, and Meghanne, 14, were very upset.

"Siobhan has been crying all night, but I don't know what to say to either of them. I don't know if the dogs are going to come back and, if they don't, I suppose we can only hope they are being looked after," said Mrs Scott, of Coxhoe, County Durham.

"They are family pets, not guard dogs. They don't have a bad bone in their bodies. We have a holding where we keep horses, which is the best place for them if everyone is away out all day.

"I have been doing some detective work and they have to have been taken in daylight. There is a river not far away with water rats, which would have eaten the chicken that was left for the dogs if it had been dark."

Debo is a rescue dog with distinctive lumps on the back of its front legs.

Both dogs are black and tan, healthy, but only the rottweiler is fitted with an identity microchip.

Mrs Scott, and husband Tony, a fitter, hope that the dogs are being kept together because Debo's chip could lead to the return of both dogs.

PC John Seymour, beat officer for Trimdon, said whoever had taken the animals had planned the theft well and appealed to the public for help in tracking the thieves.

Anyone with information is asked to contact PC Seymour on 0845-60-60-365, or Crimestoppers, in confidence, on 0800-555-111.