How TV’s ‘Hunted’ Demonstrates The Need For A Swift Response To Dog Theft

First things first: there are no spoilers here.

Watching Channel 4’s Hunted series reinforced our motto that Prevention Is Better Than Found in terms of dog theft.

You see, we’ve always concentrated on the stolen dog, what it might be experiencing: fear, hunger, thirst, injury, illness, puppy farming, etc.  And that’s what inspired our HOWL app.  When a stolen dog is found, their body and personality may be changed, and that’s what gives us clues about their experiences during the separation.  That separation is what HOWL hopes to prevent from occurring in the first place.

But watching most recent series of Hunted served as a further reinforcement for our motto.  If you haven’t seen the series, please do watch it, because it’s great light entertainment.  The concept is this:

Contestants, who are known as “fugitives”, are dropped off at a location and have to evade the hunters for 20-odd days and then on the final day, make their way to a location for a specific time in order to claim a £100,000 prize.  The contestants are a mixture of complete amateurs, right up to ex-military. 

The hunters?  Well, they’re a crack team of law enforcement, military and intelligence professionals.  For the purpose of the programme, they’re given powers similar to the police, so they have access to things like:

·        sophisticated tracking devices;

·        real-time telephone monitoring;

·        CCTV;

·        drones with cameras and thermal imaging equipment;

·        ANPR cameras, and probably loads more. 

There’s a dedicated team in an HQ-type location, and several teams of “ground hunters” in Range Rovers, ready to head to any location on demand.  The team also issues social media appeals for information on the location of the fugitives, sometimes offering financial rewards.  The game is over for the fugitives when a ground hunter “captures” them.

The odds really are stacked against the fugitives.  The only thing they know for sure is that the hunters know their names and ages, and have a photograph of them.  Other than that they don’t know how much the hunters know, whether there’s a ground hunter about to pounce, if their face has been all over social media, or their most recent hiding place has been compromised.

Yet, despite the sizeable team of professionals, whose only job is to locate and capture the fugitives, those fugitives manage to evade them for days or weeks.  Watching the show, you’ll see near misses and successful misdirection.  You’ll see what people do to avoid capture, and how the hunters, despite their arsenal of intelligence, fancy equipment, and extensive practical experience, seem to be continually on the back foot. 

And that’s an example of how art mimics life. 

When a dog is stolen, the police open an investigation, but their resources aren’t endless like in the TV show.  And each officer won’t only be dealing with one case; they’ll be juggling loads at the same time.  Let’s not pretend that there are entire teams of officers investigating each individual dog theft; there are only teams on the most serious cases – murder, terrorism, organised crime, and the like. 

In an ideal world, there would be sufficient resources for every crime to be investigated with the diligence and vigour seen on this programme.  But also in an ideal world, there would be no incidents of dog theft or dog napping.

Prevention Is Better Than Found

And that’s where Prevention Is Better Than Found is demonstrated yet again.  Those whose dogs are stolen find themselves frantically scrambling to catch up with the offenders, both physically and metaphorically. 

The thieves have a head start; they know what they’re going to do, how they’re going to do it, and what their escape plan is.  The dog owner is blissfully unaware until it’s too late, and then they’re on the back foot.  If professional hunters struggle to catch up with “fugitives” whose identities they know, what chance does the ordinary dog owner stand?

With diminished, and further diminishing, resources, the police can really only investigate the most serious offences, or those where the evidence is readily available.  Sad, but true.

So it’s up to us as responsible dog owners to do all we can to minimise our risk of dog theft.  And if we do fall victim to them, we need to capture as much evidence as possible, and get the word out swiftly.  The longer we wait to share details of our beloved stolen dog, sadly the lower the chances of us being reunited.

How HOWL is working to redress the balance

We also refer to this as Biting Back Against Dog Thieves.  Snappy.

Our HOWL app is designed for use whilst you’re out on dog walks.  It’ll monitor your location, and if you activate a “HOWL for help” it will simultaneously:

If, despite activating a HOWL for help, your dog is stolen, you need to get the word out quickly.  The HOWL app is designed to store relevant information about your dog, including a recent picture.  It’s only accessible by you unless and until you choose to share it.  But everything is to hand so you don’t have to search for your microchip paperwork, remember which is your dog’s tatty ear, or choose a photograph to share.  It’s all ready to go in the HOWL app, because in a stressful situation you’re not thinking straight.  Everything seems so complicated and unmanageable.  So HOWL will try to make it a little bit easier for you.

And the footage you captured on the video can be shared with the police.  That fuzzy footage of a vehicle’s number plate?  That might be the final piece in the jigsaw for them.  Or it might give them a starting point for their investigation.  If you’ve ever watched some of the investigation documentaries you’ll understand how the smallest piece of evidence can be incredibly powerful.  And if the police are able to link the offender to the crime (and hopefully reunite you with your dog), the evidence can be used to prosecute those responsible. 

You can learn more about how HOWL works here.

Don’t get us wrong, we can’t promise that HOWL will prevent your dog from being stolen, or that your dog will be found, or that an offender will be identified and prosecuted. 

But we can promise that we’re giving you the best possible chance against dog thieves.  We’re evening up the odds, redressing the balance, Biting Back Against Dog Thieves.

And what about other areas of your life?  Well, we’ve got plenty of hints for you on our safety tips page.  Many people will be unaware of how small actions can make a dog thief’s day; please click though to read more.

On that note, we’ll leave you with some food for thought.  Recently, whilst out distributing HOWL leaflets around the local area, when at that point where houses all begin to look the same and all we could think of was our sore feet, we were occasionally perked up.

“What perked you up?” you ask.

Several things, all at different houses.

“Please close the gate” signs.

A “Guard dog on duty” sign.

“Beware of the dog” signs.

One house had a funky outdoor mat, printed with Scotty dogs.

All of those things indicated that at least one dog probably lived there.  Great!  Our leaflets would definitely be relevant to those residents.  That put a spring in our step and kept us going a while longer.

But as happy as those things made us, they would do the same to a dog thief. 

Don’t make a dog thief’s monstrous intentions easy for them to achieve.  We loved that funky doormat, but we’d be moving it indoors, or to the back door. 

Let’s work together to Bite Back Against Dog Thieves.

Please download HOWL today.