Dog Thief Waylays Breeder
 Even so this I guess could just as easily happen in your home.
Call it a dog deal gone wrong. In one stiff sucker punch, Simon Jagsz, 21, went from a dog breeder trying to sell an 8-week-old Yorkshire terrier to a bleeding and bruised victim of a robbery. "It was a planned attack," Jagsz told the Sun yesterday, a day after he was jumped for the puppy. Toronto Police are investigating the bizarre crime but, as of last night, had found neither hide nor hair of the dog The Mississauga college student breeds and sells toy dogs, similar to those made famous by celebrities Paris Hilton and Scarlett Johansson. "Everyone wants the purse dog," Jagsz said, adding he didn't realize how low someone would go if he didn't want to pay for it. Jagsz advertised Cody, the fourth and final puppy in a litter of Yorkshire terriers, for $850 on a classifieds website. In stores they usually sell for $1,500 to $2,000. A girl in her late teens or early 20s called him and arranged to meet him Sunday in the courtyard outside 9 Crescent Pl., just off Victoria Park Ave., in East York. The girl and a friend met Jagsz about 5 p.m. and told him they were waiting for her father to bring the money. Jagsz was watching them play with the dog when suddenly someone punched him from behind. The punch tore open his chin -- it later took five stitches to close the cut -- and knocked him to his knees. "He said, 'Do you want to fight?' " Jagsz said. "I was disoriented, I didn't know what was going on." As blood poured out, Jagsz ran across the courtyard. He asked a passerby for help and called 911 on his cellphone. When he looked back, girls, attacker and dog were gone. Jagsz said it was his first robbery in the three years he's been in business. 'NOT COMING BACK' "I'm not coming back to this area, that's for sure," he said. "If they're not going to give the puppy back, (I hope) they just take care of it." Although the pup is already housebroken and socialized, it does need thorough care, Jagsz said. He's not giving up on finding Cody: "I'd fight anybody to get him back." The dog has a microchip in it for identification, which will help if Cody turns up at a pet store or shelter. |
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My niece mentioned this a current occurence in Miami. Thieves know that they could sell "the dog in vogue" without papers or med records. No money invested, no time, all profit.  |
| It's not necessarily widespread, but there have been sporadic such reports in a number of areas where there are shortages of puppies, small breeds especially, for a while now. If not theft, then smuggling:
From US Customs and Border Protection Today: http://www.cbp.gov/xp/CustomsToday/2006 ... uppies.xml June/July 2006 Smuggled puppies a concern to California By Elysa Cross, Public Affairs Specialist, Office of Public Affairs Everyone loves a soft cute puppy – those sweet brown eyes, short stubby legs, little wagging tail are hard to resist. Unfortunately, some people are willing to take advantage of that love and are smuggling very young puppies from Mexico into the United States. Purebred and designer breed puppies are purchased in Mexico for between $50 and $150, then sold at street corners, parking lots and flea markets in Southern California for between $300 and $1,000 each, according to the Border Puppy Task Force. The Task Force is a group of 14 California animal welfare and law enforcement agencies including U.S. Customs and Border Protection and initiated by the San Diego Humane Society. The Task Force was formed in 2004 after a rash of complaints from owners who reported their dogs were getting sick and often dying. The Border Puppy Task Force conducted a two-week statistic gathering operation at the Otay Mesa and San Ysidro ports of entry. The findings were announced at a press conference held on December 20, 2005 at the San Ysidro border crossing. The operation looked at animals brought from Mexico to the United States. During the two-week study 362 puppies under the age of 3 months were brought into the United States from the two points of entry. Over a year’s time, that equates to almost 10,000 young puppies entering San Diego County. Puppies were found packed in glove compartments and truck beds. Some of them don't have teeth, are drenched in vomit, or are barely weaned. "Puppy peddling is better than selling drugs. The consequences are far less," said Simran Zilaro, with San Diego Humane Society. "Most of these pups are bred in Mexico, pulled from their mothers at four to five weeks of age, sold south of the border and smuggled across into the United States for sale," said Capt. Aaron Reyes of the task force. "Each bust leads us to yet another seller and we're following up on leads as quickly as we can." It is legal to cross the border with dogs if they are declared to CBP and they have rabies shots and health records....<snip> Kristine |
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