Stolen Dogs 2019-Sept 2024
Date of request: 10 October 2024
Reference: 1256-24
Request
1a. How many complaints or reports have your force had regarding dogs being stolen in your area between the following years 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023, January 2024-30 September 2024?
1b. Please breakdown the figures into the respective years.
1c. Please breakdown the breed of dog in the respective years.
- In each year, please provide the number of missing dog cases the police investigated.
- In each year, please provide the number of missing dogs officers found because of their investigations.
- In each year, what was the average time officers spent investigating a missing dog case? I understand that officers may not keep logs, but I would accept an estimate if at all possible.
- In each year, how many suspects did officers arrest for stealing a dog? Please give details of the charge. I know the Pet Abduction Act became law in 2024, but what would suspects have been charged with prior to this act?
- Have your officers discussed the possibility of organised criminal gangs stealing dogs to order? If so, please provide any internal documents or briefing notes.
Response
Avon and Somerset Police have searched our crime recording database for records between 01 January 2019 and 30 September 2024 where there is:
- a property classification of ‘stolen’ and
- property type listed as ‘dog’ or
- an offence of ‘Abduction of pet dog/cat’ filtering out cats reports.
We have not been able to distinguish between ‘missing’ and ‘stolen’ dogs, so our response is based on ‘stolen’ dogs.
The data set will not show those thefts that have not been reported to the police and do not match the above criteria.
Q1a, Q1b, Q2
As mentioned above, we cannot distinguish between ‘missing’ and ‘stolen’ dogs, so our response for question 1a and 2 has been combined. The table below shows the number of occurrences recorded which meet the above criteria.
| 2019 | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 | Sum: |
| 12 | 17 | 14 | 7 | 8 | 5 | 63 |
Q1c
Information such as breed is not always recorded however where possible I have included the information we have identified. Multiple dogs or breeds of dogs can be reported as part of same occurrence which is why this figure is bigger than the table above.
| Property Description | 2019 | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 | Sum: |
| American Bulldog | 1 | 1 | |||||
| American Pit Bull Terrier | 1 | 1 | |||||
| Aussie Bulldog | 1 | 1 | |||||
| Border Collie | 1 | 1 | |||||
| Bulldog | 2 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 6 | ||
| Bull Terrier | 1 | 1 | |||||
| Cavalier King Charles Spaniel | 1 | 1 | |||||
| Cockerspaniel | 2 | 2 | |||||
| Collie | 1 | 1 | |||||
| Dachshund | 1 | 1 | 1 | 3 | |||
| Dalmatian | 1 | 1 | |||||
| Fox Terrier | 1 | 1 | |||||
| German Shepherd | 1 | 1 | |||||
| Greyhound | 1 | 1 | |||||
| Husky | 1 | 1 | 2 | ||||
| Jack Russell Terrier | 1 | 1 | 1 | 3 | |||
| Labrador Retriever | 1 | 1 | 2 | ||||
| Maltese | 1 | 1 | |||||
| Other dog | 6 | 7 | 1 | 2 | 16 | ||
| Pug | 1 | 1 | |||||
| Rottweiler | 1 | 1 | 2 | ||||
| Scottish Terrier | 1 | 1 | |||||
| Setter | 1 | 1 | |||||
| Shih Tzu | 1 | 1 | 2 | ||||
| Springer Spaniel | 1 | 1 | |||||
| Staffordshire Bull Terrier | 1 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 7 | |
| Whippet | 1 | 1 | |||||
| Sum: | 13 | 18 | 15 | 7 | 8 | 5 | 66 |
Q3 We have provided the number of dogs recorded as ‘found’ and ‘recovered’. They could be found and recovered for multiple reasons, such as retuned having escaped when the owners thought they were stolen, not just because of police investigations.
It is also worth noting that if a dog has been found and the owners have not contacted the police to inform us as such, the record will not reflect this. Therefore, the number of dogs still recorded as stolen may not be an accurate figure.
| Property Classification | 2019 | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 | Sum: | |
| Animal – Dog | Found | 1 | 1 | 2 | ||||
| Animal – Dog | Recovered | 1 | 2 | 3 |
Q4 This information is not held. The Freedom of Information Act allows a right of access to recorded information; there is no obligation for us to create information to satisfy a request.
Q5 Where there is an Offender Custody number recorded which shows an arrest has been made using the below criteria, this information has been used to answer this question. Multiple people can be arrested for one occurrence, which is the case for the figure in 2024.
Criteria:
- a property classification of ‘stolen’ and
- property type listed as ‘dog’ or
- an offence of ‘Abduction of pet dog/cat’ filtering out cats reports.
Prior to the Pet Abduction Act which received Royal Assent on 24 May 2024, we do not have a recorded list of offences that could have been used, however all 10 arrests have an offence description of ‘Residential Burglary of a home’.
| Year | Count Arrests |
| 2019 | 1 |
| 2020 | 1 |
| 2021 | 1 |
| 2022 | 0 |
| 2023 | 0 |
| 2024 | 7 |
| Sum | 10 |
Please be aware that if someone is arrested for multiple offences at the same time, then it is the most serious offence that is recorded for each occurrence.
Q6 No internal briefing notes or documents, or records of discussions relevant to this question have been identified by Avon and Somerset police.
You may find some previously published information relating to stolen dogs useful available from our force website here.