According to official figures, police cleared up just two percent of dog thefts in the UK last year.
Dog adoption rates hit record highs during the 2020 lockdowns, but the boom in so-called pandemic puppies has also been accompanied by an increase in dog crime.
Research by the Kennel Club found that there were 2,355 cases of dognapping in the UK in 2020, seven percent more than in 2019.
The Kennel Club asked the 45 police forces across the UK under the Freedom of Information Act for data on dog theft in 2020 and 2019. Only 36 responded with data on the number of cases and only 27 had data on the case results of reported dog thefts .
It found that 98 percent of the time, a perpetrator is never arrested for his crime of taking loved ones out of the arms of their families in love.
The Kennel Club is now launching a new campaign titled “Paw and Order: Dog Theft Reform” calling for a central database of information about dog theft that can be shared by various police forces.
There is also a growing dynamic to reclassify the view and treatment of dog theft in the eyes of law enforcement agencies.
Currently, the judgments depend on the monetary value of the stolen animal and do not take into account the emotional agony inflicted on both the dog and the owner, who are often forcibly separated.