Dog owners are being urgently warned that thefts of cute pets are rising “exponentially”.
A new data report by GoCompare has analysed Freedom of Information requests sent to police constabularies across the UK.
Analysts also looked at doglost.co.uk data to investigate the rise in dog related crimes in the UK in 2021.
With dog thefts in the UK increasing exponentially in the past year the study by GoCompare Pet reveals the most targeted breeds, the UK’s hotspots and the percentage of those recovered.
Between 2018 and 2020, there were 164 cases of Staffordshire bull terriers reported stolen by their owners making them the most stolen breed.
On average each dog from this breed costs £1,028. This amounts to a value of £168,623 worth of dogs stolen over the past three years.
Dog napping is on the rise in 2021, coinciding with the pet industry boom during lockdown.
From analysing social data from Doglost.co.uk, GoCompare found there was a 189% increase in the number of dogs being listed as stolen on the site in comparison to the year before.
Sally Jaques, Pet Expert…
