Fake hunters are stealing $10,000 hunting dogs

DOGS used for hunting are being hunted down by dog thieves posing as hunters.

The hair on the stolen dogs are then dyed in order to make then unrecognisable to the owner. At least nine have been swiped since the resumption of the hunting seson.

This is the claim made by president of the South Eastern Hunters Association Mohan Bholasingh whose own hunting dog was stolen on Sunday. Bholasingh, who is pleading with the public to help him find his professional and pet dog said : “The dogs that are stolen is the strong healthy looking powerful dogs, the feeble worm infested dogs which are really lost and needs help are left to die. Dogs are stolen while hunting, there are men out there posing as hunters and taking up dogs and selling them to others at very high prices. There are hunters out there who are in fact thieves, they thief from others in their day to day lives and cannot resist the temptation to steal a dog, once the opportunity presents itself.”

“How do we deal with this menace? “ he asked.

Bholasingh said the stolen hounds just added to the problem of dogs dying out due to the two-year-ban on hunting that ended in October. Since the beginning of the season he said nine dogs were stolen from the association hunters. Once was a dog was hunting, it can be sold for at least $10,000 he said.

Bholasingh said: “We are now attempting to train dogs to hunt after the moratorium which resulted in hunting dogs dying. I personally lost my two hunting dogs they died during the moratorium. Young dogs which do not have forest experience and can be easily taken by the thieves.”

Bholasingh added: “Hunter thieves when caught with the dogs always claim that they found it and are taking it in for safe keeping until the owner arise. They also make reports at the police station to cover their tracks. However the reports are made in stations out of where the dogs are found, Dogs found in Catshill which should be reported in Rio Claro are reported in Sangre Grande, Diego Martin etcetera.”

He stated: “ Any hunter who holds a hunting dog in the forest environment and takes it into his custody without knowing the owner and intends to carry it for the owner is a dog thief. No person should remove a hunting dog from a hunting environment if it does not belong to him. If the dogs are left alone the owner would find them since they would be searching in the area where the dog was misplaced.”

“Dog thief’s common evasive strategy is to dye the hair on the dog, so as to camouflage its appearance, a brown and white dog can easily be dyed into a black and white dog,” Bholasingh also said.

The Express was told there were no reports of stolen dogs at the Rio Claro Police Station.

• Published on Nov 9, 2015, 8:28 am AST
• By: Sue-Ann Wayow
  sue-ann.wayow@trinidadexpress.com

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