A puppy was fortunate to be reunited with his owner three days after he was snatched in St Winifreds, thanks to diligent work from the CCPO.
Beryl Alanthwaite’s three-month-old staffy Fergus was in her driveway by the verge on Friday, 3 July after getting through a gap between the wall and the gate when a vehicle with two occupants stopped. The passenger opened their door, scooped him up and the vehicle drove off.
“We were all out in the garden and noticed he was missing within 10 minutes. We got the CCTV footage from Blue Security, but the resolution was too low. On Monday I called George Snodey of the CCPO and he said I must ask Eugene Engelbrecht of Blue to sharpen the image.” Her son Jordan also contacted CCPO committee member, Rob Mill’s son Cameron to say their dog was missing.
“On Monday (6 July) we checked the footage from Blue, ET Rapid Response and our cameras and investigated three possible vehicles that could have been involved,” said Rob. “By process of elimination, we whittled it down to only one and went to the owner’s house in Phoenix. They freely admitted they had seen the puppy on the verge and had taken it.”
READ ALSO: Amanzimtoti SPCA needs help
They gave the dog back to Rob, who reunited it with a grateful Beryl and her family at about 5pm on Monday.
Although Fergus had already had his inoculations, his new ‘owners’ took to get them again and he was returned still sporting his collar.
“I was going to take him to get microchipped the day before he was taken, but he is so small I thought I would wait a bit. All our other dogs are microchipped,” said Beryl. “We were very happy and relieved to get him back and there were lots of tears of joy when he was returned. If it wasn’t for the cameras, we would never have found our dog.
“Thanks to my son Jordan, Eugene, Rob, Cameron and George. We have been CCPO members since the first meeting in the civic centre when it was formed and it is worth it!”
Amanzimtoti SPCA manager, Tracey Girling, said they encourage everyone to microchip their animals because it’s proof of ownership. “Collars and tags can be removed by suspected dog thieves. Microchipping is also the quickest way to reunite pets with their owners. All our adoption animals are microchipped before going home, which forms part of the adoption fee. It takes literally one minute to do and remains with the animal for life.”
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