Anyone who would steal a dog is devoid of compassion

DOG-NAPPING represents an attack on the family unit.

The stealing of a companion animal, with the heartbreak it leaves in its slipstream, is a crime carried out by a person shorn of any tendencies towards compassion.

Within a family, the dog is the cornerstone that brings together all strands of family, daily life and creates a bond around the one with the ‘wet nose’ that is stronger than concrete.

Dog-nappers are excuses for human beings. In pursuit of commercial gain their nefarious actions inflict mental anguish on people as well as the dog.

Taken from its familiar surroundings, the dog is thrown into a strange and frightening situation; a canine mind drowning in a sea of fear-filled thoughts as it attempts to embrace the unfamiliar.

It is easy to say that our existing animal protection laws can stem the current rise in dog-napping.

However, given that our courts have become outlets for a defendant’s sob story that aim the suspended-sentence arrow towards the judge’s legal heart, it seems our courts are punishment arid.

Will society feign surprise when a dog owner interrupts a dog-napping attempt and dishes out prison-yard justice to a stealer of the leash?

It would certainly hammer (ahem) home the point, that attempting to remove the dog from the home incurs the penalty of a hospital stay. Play stupid games, win stupid prizes.

That dog-napping should even exist allows validation to Mark Twain’s musing that ‘the more I learn about people, the more I like my dog’.

JOHN TIERNEY, Chairperson Waterford Animal Concern.