He s ays, she s ays
Britain’s best-loved couple Eamonn Holmes & Ruth Langsford talk us through this week’s news…
WHY ARE WE NAPPING ON DOGNAPPING?
RUTH: If you can’t believe people regard their dogs like family, just ask the scum that make a living as dognappers. Or better still, the lady walking by a canal a few miles from our home, who watched as two men snatched her off-the-lead canine and bundled it into a waiting car. Such was her distress and love for her pet that she latched on to the car bonnet, holding on for dear life until the thieves realised she wasn’t going to let go. She put her life in danger because that dog was so important to her.
You see, however inconvenient, stealing a dog isn’t the same as stealing a mobile phone or a car. To so many like that lady, they are a family member, a support network, a lifeline – something some folk are prepared to put themselves in danger for. And current laws don’t reflect that.
Eighty stolen dogs were recently recovered from a site in Suffolk. That’s a business, on an industrial scale. The money flows in from breeding, ransom, selling and even fighting. Stealing pays, and nobody seems to care – except owners.
Dog ownership has rocketed during lockdown, and it’s obvious why. They are good for our physical and mental health, they help lower our blood pressure, they really are man’s best friend. Everyone who can should experience the love a dog brings. It’s simple, it’s pure, it’s unconditional. A dog loves you, no matter what.
Some police forces record dog thefts as a petty crime. There is nothing petty about it. Pet theft rips the heart out of people and families and wrecks lives. Government, police and, most importantly, criminals have got to get the message that stealing a dog is not the same as stealing a bike.
SHOWER POWER
EAMONN: I don’t like throwing cold water on people’s ideas but I wasn’t at all enthusiastic when my physio suggested that, to increase my energy levels and circulation, I should start my day with a shower – a cold one! Gingerly, I built up to it – 10 seconds, 15… then 20. Now, I’m at a minute and counting – and I’m a total convert! Brain fog has left me and it genuinely has made me more energetic and positive. Ruth tells me she’s positive enough and, in what I take to be a reference to her energy, for some reason points out that she still walks the dog ‘far more’ than me!
‘Folk put themselves in danger to save pets’ Ruth