Give a Dog a Bad Name.
Your starter for ten points! What is the point of having your dog micro chipped?
- So you can prove it is yours if it is stolen?
- So you can prove it is the same dog that you hold all the vaccination certificates for?
- Any combination of the above?
The Huddersfield Examiner yesterday had the bizarre story of a micro chipped puppy, and his baffled owner.
Dave Moorhouse came home one day in 2007 to find his much loved Jack Russell puppy had been stolen.
He told the vets who had micro chipped and vaccinated the dog that he was missing.
Three years later he got a letter from the micro chipping company asking him if he would let them change the name on their database to reflect the dog’s new owners…..
Yes, he would mind! in fact he demanded the name and address of the people who were claiming to be the new owners – Ooh!! Yelped the micro chipping firm that he had paid for their services – can’t tell you that, Date Protection Laws……
That’s insane, said Dave, and went round to his local police station. ‘Hello, my stolen dog has been found, traced by the microchip I paid to have implanted, and the micro chip firm won’t tell me where he is’ – Grrrr!! Growled the police man that was supposed to uphold law and order – ‘can’t tell you that, might create a breach of the peace’.
‘That’s ridiculous’, said Dave, and applied to his local court for a judge to hear the matter. ‘Hello, no one will tell me where my stolen dog is, and they all know’ Tsk!!, said the Judge, we don’t know that they are the thieves, and if they aren’t, it could infringe their human rights….and he ruled that he had no jurisdiction in the matter.
You don’t need to make it up.
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1
September 22, 2010 at 16:14 -
So, the microchipping that all the animal charities recommend and the RSPCA pushes for (to control ‘dangerous dogs’) turns out to be utterly useless?
I wish I could say I’m surprised.
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4
September 22, 2010 at 16:17 -
Compare and contrast, as exams used to say, the stories one hears of people who buy cars in perfectly good faith, which later turn out to have HP outstanding on them… the HP company turns up and takes “your” car away, you have no defence and no redress, and the money’s gone for good.
Exactly whose side IS the law on, these days?
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5
September 22, 2010 at 16:23 -
There’s a story in my Mum’s local paper that I’ll be blogging when it goes online – a pensioner in Barking went to stay at a relatives for two day’s and came back to find another family had moved into his house! He went to the police who gave a statement to the paper to the effect that these people were VICTIMS of a rogue estate agent.
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6
September 22, 2010 at 16:50 -
The lithuanians who moved are not victims of a rogue estate agent. It’s a standard phrase they use as they’ve found that the police believe them and don’t kick them out for theft.
But as you say why is a car treated differently to a house or dog. It’s all property theft.
Try this case of a house being “stolen” in Oz – http://www.theregister.co.uk/2010/09/14/id_frausters_sell_stolen_oz_house/
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7
September 22, 2010 at 17:28
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8
September 22, 2010 at 16:27 -
Damn iPhone! Premature ejaculation!
The old boy is now at the mercy of the local council for temporary housing as the police are treating it as ‘a civil matter’.
YET, as Andrew points out, if you are stopped at the wheel of a car that you’ve bought in good faith, they seize it then and there if it’s a stolen vehicle.
It’s wrong, totally wrong.
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9
September 22, 2010 at 16:54 -
It’s when they start talking about microchiping people it gets worrying.
Just goes to show what a crazy mental idea that is .
Or just plain evil. -
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September 23, 2010 at 10:23 -
So, effectively, it is not possible to legally own a dog.
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September 23, 2010 at 10:58 -
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September 23, 2010 at 11:51 -
Stealing is to deprive someone of their property. The dog is stolen and as with a car should be returned to the owner. The house is stolen and as with a car should be returned to the owner. When did we stop having property rights?
Off topic – if the RSPCA can prosecute someone why can’t the Police? Are they obliged to leave it up to the CPS or is that a fig leaf for not wanting to spend their own funds and risk their own reputation?
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September 24, 2010 at 15:32 -
Another article about the dog napping case here – http://www.theregister.co.uk/2010/09/24/cyborg_dog/
Different viewpoints in the comments, mainly due to the Register article using the Daily Mail as it’s source.
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