A new crime is on the rise in Muscat with cases of pedigree animals stolen to sell on or breed. Kate Ginn investigates.
The tip-off came in a telephone call giving details of a possible address at a location in Muscat where he was being held captive. After five weeks, it was the break that Diane Read had been desperately hoping for.
After calling the police, she set off to Azaiba with two male friends to get back what had been stolen from her home five weeks before – her three-year-old husky dog, Oz.
After weeks of searching for him, the trail had finally led to a villa in the less than salubrious surroundings of a rundown area close to the beach.
“When we got there, I knocked on the door but the men who answered said they didn’t have a dog there,” says Di.
“I called the police and basically staked the place out.We parked the car outside and just sat there patiently for 90 minutes waiting for the police, who never came.
“They people in the villa locked the gates. The police never showed up. And then a woman came out and asked what dog I was looking for. I showed her a photo of Oz on my phone and then she showed me a photo of Oz that she had on her phone.
“She took me to an outroom in the garden, it was basically a shed. It was padlocked and when the door opened, the smell just hit you.
“Oz was in there tied up. The floor was covered in dog waste and the smell was overpowering. There were no windows and no air con.
“There were two other smaller dogs loose in the room.
“Oz started crying when he saw me and I was crying; I just wanted to get him out of there. He was filthy dirty, thin and hungry.”
Piecing together the story, Diane discovered that the two men who had stolen Oz from the garden of her home had abandoned him shortly after in Mabela. Oz is a well-known dog in the local community as Diane takes him on desert trips and adventures, and perhaps his kidnappers got cold feet when they realised he was “famous”. More likely they discovered that the dog was castrated and of no use to them for breeding.
Whatever the reason, Oz was out on the streets, alone and 56km from home. He spent the new few weeks trying to make his way back and miraculously got close. Diane believes he was near the beach in Azaiba, when he was taken to the villa and kept locked up for four days in the filthy room.
No one knows what the people who had him were planning to do with him.
Diane paid the RO250 reward that she had put up for his safe return to the other local men who had made the tip-off call.
Several weeks on and Oz is fully recovered physically from his ordeal.
His case became something of a cause célèbre, capturing attention from around the world as a social media campaign to find him went viral.
“I had people gunning for him from the States to Australia and the UK,” says Diane, who got Oz as a 14-week-old rescue puppy.
“People just really got behind him and were following his story. The way it took off was just incredible. When we went out on searches to look for Oz, complete strangers would join in, saying they had read about him.
“The kindness was overwhelming and I’m incredibly grateful for that.”
What the tale of Oz also did was shine the light on the sinister trade of dognapping, the crime of taking a dog from its owner with the intention of exploiting the dog. In some cases, ransoms are demanded for the safe return of the pet.
The dogs are often stolen to order or used to breed, a lucrative trade that can pull in thousands of rials for each litter. Pedigree dogs, in particular German shepherds and Siberian huskies, are the most prized. A single German shepherd puppy can fetch upwards of RO550. Other breeds such as mastiffs and pitbulls are valued for fighting.
Cats are also stolen, mostly Persians, with the hope of breeding.
So big are the rewards that dognapping is now becoming an organised crime in some countries with gangs turning huge profits.
It’s already a phenomenon in Dubai, where the problem has become so bad that owners are installing CCTV cameras in a bid to protect their beloved pets as animal charities say a theft is happening almost weekly. Now it seems to have spread across the border to Oman.
“This is a huge problem that people don’t realise,” says Diane Read. “I know of three people who had their dog taken from their residences and inside their garden. One was a quite old Jack Russell and they never got it back. “You think your dog is safe.”
An investigation by Y has discovered that it’s a growing trend and, because the thefts often go unreported, it is likely to be far worse than feared. Only this week, a black Labrador, Alfred, was taken from Amerat on Monday evening.
His owners are said to be devastated. “The kids grew up with him and adore him. It’s very sad,” said a family friend.
In a bid to discover how widespread dognapping actually is in Muscat, we’ve spoken to owners, animal experts and welfare groups.
“It’s a big problem here,” says Dr Svetlana, a veterinary surgeon at PetCare Veterinary Centre in Al Mouj Muscat.
“I’m hearing of cases with dogs and cats.
“It is easy sometimes to take the animal. If it’s in a garden or apartment with a low wall, they just reach over and take it.
“They can resell the dogs to make money or use them to breed. If the dog is of no use to them – they find out it is neutered, for instance – then they simply dump it on the streets.”
Suggestions are that some thefts are down to local youths, who are stealing expensive dogs to fund a drug habit. It is, as one animal expert put it, “easy money” for them.
Others talk of pedigree dogs being taken to be breed with local wadi dogs in farms in the Barka area, the resulting puppies of which are then sold as “pure breeds” for hundreds of rials to unsuspecting customers.
Scour walls at different pet shops and vets around Muscat and you will find posters from distraught owners looking for their missing pets. Social media forums have posts with pictures of animals that have disappeared without trace. Most are never seen again. Happy endings like Oz the husky are not common.
Alfa Vold, managing director of Muscat-based Canadian Jebel K9 Training & Services who works with many owners, tells Y: “I’ve had a few clients that have either had very suspicious activity or their dogs have been taken.
“One client in Al Hail a few years ago had two German shepherds stolen from their garden and they were really upset. They went asking around the neighbourhood and found out that the dogs were being kept a few doors down. They had been taken to sell them for money.
“One of my friends, their Beagle was stolen from their garden. They’ve searched relentlessly but have never found a trace of it.
“It is not just happening to expats. One Omani family had their German shepherd taken from a garden too.
“This seems to be happening particularly in the Azaiba area. You wonder if they are watching people walking their dogs and following them?
“Sometimes it’s kids who take a dog because it looks cool or cute and they want it and they think the owner will not mind or miss it.
“Breeds such as German shepherds have become more desired.
“More often than not, it’s been stolen for money. They steal whatever items they can and to them, a dog is an item not a pet. It is something to be sold online.”
One British expat, who asked not to be named, certainly thinks her house was “cased” before her little shih-tzu, Ruby, was taken from the garden of a shared villa in Azaiba in November 2014.
“I had a feeling that we were being watched for a few weeks leading up to Ruby being taken,” says her owner.
“I think they knew my routine, what time I left for work and came back, and waited for their chance. We always left the back door open so that Ruby had the run of the ground. On the day she went, I had left to go away for the weekend and Ruby had poked her nose under the gate to say goodbye as she usually did.
“Someone was in the villa with her, so she wasn’t alone.
“Shortly after I had left, I got a call from my friend to say that she had gone missing. We put up posters and searched for her but I never saw her again.
“I just tell myself that she’s happy somewhere in another home and being looked after.”
Several people we spoke to mentioned a white minivan being seen cruising around areas.
Vickki Byrne, a trained dog physiotherapist who owns two German shepherds and a Labrador, was at home last Saturday (April 30) when the doorbell rang. It was late, around 8.15pm.
“There were two lads, both Omani, wearing shorts and T-shirts, one around 15 and the other 10, standing there.
“I had never seen them before and they asked to see my dogs and what breeds they were. The dogs were in the kitchen.
“I told them there was absolutely no way they were coming into the house.
I went upstairs and my husband said they have got into two separate cars, a black sedan and a minivan type car and drove off towards Mawaleh.
“I think they were buzzing to see if we were in. I think they were definitely after the dogs. They were chancing their arm to see who was here, whether the dogs were around. Pretty much everybody I have spoken to says it sounds suspicious. I didn’t get the car registration number or I would have reported it to the police.
“I have thought that people have been hanging around our house and the doorbell has rung a couple of times after eight o’clock at night but we haven’t answered.” Vickki has since taken one of her German shepherds, Max, to be microchipped.
“Max is microchipped so if someone steals him, I have got unequivocal proof that he’s mine.
“I’m being extremely careful. Our gate is padlocked 24/7, so anyone would have to lift a dog weighing up to 8kg over an eight-foot-high wall.
“Our maid has been instructed not to open the door to anyone and she is now not allowed to leave the dogs unaccompanied in the garden.
“I’ve noticed a trend here that people are looking for the status of owning an attack dog, like a German shepherd.
“The summer holidays are coming up which is prime time for this with people and expats going away and leaving their pets with the maid. My advice is look at general house security.”
Y did request details about dognapping cases from the Royal Oman Police but at the time of going to press had not received an official response. But we did speak to a police source and was told it was not considered a major issue and that any reports of theft would always be investigated. The onus, it would seem, is firmly with the owners.
Dr Svetlana believes the government must play a part by introducing strict animal welfare laws. “It should be law that all dogs and cats must be microchipped so that if an animal is stolen and sold on and then taken to the vets, we can discover who the real owner is. It is easy to do and costs just RO20 per animal.
“We have a micro scanner and the data can be shared with all the vets in Muscat. We have not found a stolen dog yet but then microchipping is not very common here.
“We also need the government to bring in laws to protect animals and make stealing of them an offence.”
Alfa Vold offers a simple solution: “My dogs are never left unattended and not left outside on their own for long periods. People have to start thinking about that.
“It’s an unfortunate thing but if dogs that are super friendly or not able to fight for themselves they are an easy target.”
Di Read has installed CCTV cameras at her home and never lets Oz out in the garden alone now.
“I think the reason I got Oz back is because he became ‘famous’. The only way I could think to get him back was to put the word out on social media and make him ‘hot property’.
“It’s an incredible story, how he walked 56km to get back to me. If it happened now though, in 40 degree heat, I don’t think he would have made it.”
The owners of the dozens of dogs still missing in Muscat – Missy, Alfred and Ruby to name but a few – are hoping for a similar happy ending to their stories.
INVESTIGATION:
With pedigree dogs and cats costing hundreds, if not thousands of rials, it’s no surprise that some dogs are stolen and sold on the cheap while others are sold for way more than their usual price.
If stolen dogs are sold online, the new owners can have no way of knowing that they are buying someone else’s pet.
Selling animals is a big market in Oman, and online is the perfect virtual shopfront, as I discovered browsing through OXL, the buy and sell listings service. We’re not suggesting any of these animals are anything other than genuine sales but it shows the demand is out there for anyone looking to make a fast buck.
On Tuesday (May 3) this week, I found 1,498 pets that were for sale in Muscat. If you take time and go through the list of advertisements on the site, you will find an German shepherd puppy being sold for RO550, Rottweilers for RO600 and RO750. We found a husky being sold for RO350, which is extremely cheap for a dog of that breed. There are advertisements for puppies being sold for up to RO1,200. Lapdogs such as a shih-tzu had a price tag of RO280, pugs were going for RO120, a Maltese for RO300 and Pomeranians for RO800. There are cats that are also being sold. The prices of Persian kittens and cats as given by the sellers have a wide range, starting from RO40 and going up to RO200.
If you are buying a dog or cat online, bear in mind:
Refuse to buy cut-price dogs without the right paperwork or adequate background checks.
If possible, buy from reputable and registered breeders.
Make sure your pet is microchipped and that you keep your contact details up-to-date, especially if you move house or change your telephone number.
If a pet is suspected of being stolen, report it to the police immediately and insist it is recorded as a theft and not a lost animal.
* Nikita Lobo
MICROCHIPPING
1) WHAT IS MICROCHIPPING?
The microchip is the size of a grain of rice and the procedure, which is carried out by a vet or trained microchip implanter, takes only a few minutes but lasts a lifetime.
Microchipping is a simple, safe and quick procedure – one that can make all the difference in being reunited with your pet should they stray or go missing.
2) HOW DOES A MICROCHIP HELP UNITE A LOST PET WITH THEIR OWNER?
Once a pet is microchipped, the owner and his/her pet details are stored in a microchip database along with the microchip’s unique 15-digit code.
When a missing pet is found, an animal professional (for example, a vet or dog warden) will scan the pet revealing the microchip’s unique 15-digit code, and contact the microchip database the pet is recorded with. The customer care staff will perform some security checks before releasing the contact details to the animal professional so that the pet can be reunited with its owner.
3) WHY SHOULD MICROCHIPPING FOR PETS BE MADE COMPULSORY?
In England, Scotland, Wales and Ireland, from April 2016, it has been made a legal requirement for all dogs to be microchipped. Compulsory microchipping is an excellent idea in theory. As well as pinpointing responsibility for the dog’s actions, it will also:
Help reunite lost and stolen dogs with owners
Act as a deterrent to dog theft
Help enforce lifelong responsibility on puppy farmers
Make it easy for vets to contact owners in emergency situations
Source: petlog.org.uk
MOST COMMONLY STOLEN DOG BREEDS
1) German Shepherd
Its strength, obedience and ability to be trained easily amakes it one of the best police and military breeds in the world. The German shepherd is a loyal, athletic and intelligent breed that is suitable as a domestic pet but is aloof with or suspicious of strangers.
2) Husky
They are an ever-changing cross-breed of the fastest dog. They are not as tolerant towards heat as they are towards cold due to their thick coat of fur. Training them can be quite challenging and they require an enormous amount of exercise.
3) Labrador
Is one of the most popular breed of dogs and are frequently trained to aid the blind, those who have autism and to act as a therapy dog. The Labrador’s temperament is of a kind and pleasant nature.
4) Golden Retriever
They are a long-coated breed, with a dense inner coat that provides them with adequate warmth in the outdoors. They are well suited to suburban or country environments. They should be housed in a fenced area because of their instinctual tendency to roam.
5) Lap Dogs
A lap dog is not a specific breed, but is a generic term for a type of dog of small size and friendly disposition. Breeds of lapdog include:
Chihuahua – One of the smallest lapdog breeds that are famous for their big pointy ears, high-pitched bark and small size. Usually prone to attack, however, if properly managed by a dedicated owner, the Chihuahua can adapt to a household environment easily.
Pomeranian – Descended from the larger spitz-type dogs. Pomeranians are the fluffiest of the lap dogs, have a double coat and tend to be a friendly, one-person dog.
Pug – The pug is a breed of dog with a wrinkly, short-muzzled face and curled tail. The breed has a fine, glossy coat that comes in a variety of colours, most often fawn or black, and a compact square body with well-developed muscles.
Maltese – Maltese are bred to be cuddly companion dogs. They are extremely lively and playful, and even as a Maltese ages, their energy level and playful demeanor remain fairly constant. They also adore humans, and prefer to stay near them.
Shih-Tzu – The shih-tzu is a sturdy little dog with a short muzzle and large dark eyes. They have a soft and long double coat. The breed has a temperament suited to families and they are loyal, affectionate, outgoing and alert.
* Nikita Lobo
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