Ohios favorite, humane agent, Steffen Evan Baldwin, offers great tips to keep your pets safe! Stolen, from the street, the store, even from backyards, thieves are targeting the family pet and its devastating pet owners across Ohio and the country. For Elaine and Bob Gibson, it was just another day letting Max out with the family cat. That morning he chased the cat around the house. The cat came back and Max didnt, said Bob. When Max didnt come back, the Gibsons began searching on the Internet. There, they found sites of missing dogs that looked a LOT like Max. When they went investigating, they uncovered a growing epidemic, a new crime called pet flipping. Scammers steal the animals, and flip them, sometimes in seconds. They can get it either from perusing the Craigslist ads. And, looking for an ad, I found a dog., and they can say thats my dog and say thats my dog and then turn around an hour later and post it online, said Steffan Baldwin. Baldwin, President of the Animal Cruelty Task Force of Ohio said even shelters with their endless supply of strays in need of loving homes become easy targets for thieves. And frankly, county humane agents cannot keep up with the scammers. The lack of enforcement in rural Ohio is at 60-percent. Its what made Baldwin leave his full time paid position in Union County to begin his work around the clock. Baldwin met the Gibsons while they were hunting for Max and stumbled upon a so-called animal rescue that was hoarding pets, and learned about dog flipping. They also found out how Max fit the bill of the kind of dog thieves were after. Your little Bichons, and your Pekinese, and your Pomeranians, anything thats small thats easy to take out of a yard...and has high marketable value, said Baldwin. For Bob Gibson, he just hopes Max is well taken care of and hell never miss an opportunity to micro-chip one of his dogs. Wherever Max is at now, I hope hes warm hes got a good person taking care of him and hes got a full belly, said Bob. Besides micro chipping, experts say keep your pet close by and dont keep them tied out. Also, make sure theyre spayed or neutered, so they cant be used for breeding. And, keep a current photo of your pet, so if they do turn up missing, authorities do have a better chance of finding them.
Posted on: Fri, 28 Nov 2014 20:18:09 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015