We really need to do more to tackle pet theft.
I’ve been contacted by many constituents over the past few days worried about their own safety and that of their pets following recent high profile dog theft incidents.
Pets are often members of our families and my heart goes out to anyone whose much-loved pet has been cruelly taken from them. Pet theft cases should be measured more in terms of emotional distress than economic loss.
The theft of a pet is not a simple matter of theft of an item or an object, nor should it be treated as such by the law. It needs to be classed as a specific crime, with much stronger sentencing of the perpetrators than at present.
That’s why the Conservative UK Government needs to bring forward a new Animal Welfare Bill and urgently change the law on this.