Sask. group sees increase in missing dogs across province

On a snowy night in March, Jasmine Clarke’s Chihuahua Tonto disappeared from her yard in Saskatoon. The gate was unlatched when she went outside, and she assumed her kids had left it open.
 
But when she found out that wasn’t the case, Clarke began to feel uneasy.

“He would never, ever run away. He’s the type of dog that I could take out off-leash and he would never go anywhere,” she said.
 
Clarke believes Tonto was stolen, and recently, many in the Saskatoon-area have had a similar inkling after discovering their pets had gone missing.
 
A flurry of posts have been left on the Saskatchewan-based Facebook page Stolen & Theft Attempts of Pets SK. Amanda, who asked that her last name be withheld, is involved with the group. She lives in the Saskatoon-area and investigates reports of missing pets.
 
“In the last couple of months for sure we’ve noticed an increase, so we just want to make people aware. We’ve become very concerned at the fact that this may be a targeted area, so we’re just trying to get it out there so people can make sure everything is safe and looked after,” she said.

The group has received around 30 different complaints about missing pets in the last month alone and was able to confirm that two dogs had been stolen, Amanda said. In one of the cases, a Rottweiler got away from its captors and was safely returned to its family. The group is not disclosing the locations where the dogs were taken.
 
The Saskatoon Police Service said it has no evidence of any actual dog thefts at this time, but it has received three reports of attempts at dog thefts. In each case, the homeowners said they found chalk marks on either their fence or garage.

Amanda confirmed that in both stolen dog cases that her group has investigated, chalk marks were found on nearby properties. It’s believed the markings were left by potential thieves looking to keep track of which dogs to steal.
 
But Sharice Billett, who runs the Stolen & Theft Attempts of Pets SK Facebook page, warns that in most cases, the chalk marks are the result of a social media myth gone viral.
 
“We have no association with dog thefts except two cases, and the markings are nowhere near similar to what other people are sending in.” Billet said.