Dogs either disappear because they go walkies off on their own and people pick them up thinking they are lost and homeless

Or……………..

People actively target the dog and take it from the garden, or whilst it's tided up outside a shop, or even whilst its left in the car or safely locked in the house- basically, when its unattended.

BOTH these situations are theft if the dog is not reported to the Dog Warden or Petsearch or Birmingham Dogs Home as FOUND so its owners can locate it.

When our member's, the Boardman family lost their English Setter dog in April 2004, one of the first things they did was to contact all of the police stations in the West Midlands area.

Through our member's experience at that time, we know for a fact that when a person reports their dog lost to the police station it gets recorded in a book and the information does not get circulated to other police stations in the West Midlands area. Police Stations do not pass on the 'lost' dogs details to the Council Dog Warden either.

In fact, contrary to popular belief, the police do not want to be involved with lost, found and stolen dogs at all - they would prefer that you go directly to the Council Dog Warden.

As it happens, the Police now have nothing to do with taking in found dogs thanks to a new piece of legislation called the ' Cleaner Safer Neighbourhoods Bill' .

This Bill is all about the transfer of responsibilities for lost and found pets from the police to the local Dog Warden and so therefore the police will not have facilities to take 'handed in' dogs into their kennels, and what kennel facilities they do have will be gradually demolished.

The police may still take details of your lost dog but this information will only be of use in the immediate area that the Police Station covers. (not much use if someone has taken the dog out of the area) They may also tell you they are not interested and refer you to the local Dog Warden.

Dog Wardens work office hours and of course the problem arises, what to do with a dog found outside the working hours of the Dog Warden?

Now over a year since this Bill is introduced this is still a mystery to the general public across the West Midlands area and a few Police Stations still do retain kennels. But more often than not, the small rescues and sanctuaries come to the aid of the poor bewildered pet and owner. We have attempted to collect information here on Dog Wardens and out of hours reception and holding kennel.

However, Police MUST still be involved with dog theft, and MUST issue a crime number to owners who report this crime.

In the main, the general public don't realise any of this information, it is still a popular belief that you must ring the police to report 'lost & found' pets into their reporting systems, and that this will be 'enough'. It isn't.

But, if a person has never had cause to contact the Council Dog Warden then they don't realise:

• What their role is
• Where to contact them
• What their telephone number is
• That they are more important than the police in the matter of lost and found dogs.
• That they only work mainly office hours

Stolen dogs must be logged with the police but the Dog Warden has more chances of finding your dog.

So, the support for the dog owner is limited and confusing because the Police don't tell other police stations, or the Dog Wardens! - AND the Dog Wardens in neighbouring councils don't communicate across borders much either.

The dog owner must…….

Once someone loses a dog the owner must log the details with as many agencies as possible quickly. After seven days in Council care, a dog can be sold and rehomed from the centre, removed to a rescue to be rehomed, not necessarily in the area, or destroyed. So the clock is ticking!

You will find more help in the sections below

 The family with the missing English Setter soon realised that they were on their own and had to find ways themselves to search for their missing dog.

The family had no knowledge about the web sites set up to help with missing pets such as DoglostUK and they did not know how rife dog theft was across the UK.

Find out more from the links below

Month after month, it still goes on- more dogs get stolen and lost - & more lost dogs end up unwanted in rescues -

It is possible that some missing dogs could end up in rescues unknown to the owners, this rescue might be miles away.

Also there are so many rescues around in our local area that people don't know about !

In this website, we have provided you with the details of the Dog Wardens contact details and most of the local rescues, sanctuaries and dogs homes in the West Midlands area to give you a chance to find your missing dog.

We also provide details on the lost and found agencies for you to contact.

The public need to know and understand that they must not to leave their dogs where people can steal them, and when they go missing
ACT QUICKLY