Who is to blame for the designer dognapping crimewave? People like me

Dog owners tend to worry about their pets a whole lot. Are they spending too much time on their own? Do they get enough exercise? Did the little sod manage to eat that entire box of chocolates, inevitably leading to a late-night trip to the vet? I refuse to believe there’s a dog owner in the land who hasn’t spent a night in canine A&E – and who has never forgotten or forgiven the subsequent bill. Does a cat bring this much panic with it?

And now there’s another thing to worry about: dog theft is on the rise. A recent Freedom of Information request to UK police forces showed that on average, five dogs a day were stolen in 2017 – a rise of 7%. That increase is attributed to our growing love of “designer dogs” – fashionable pedigrees with large price tags. Despite the precautions owners take – such as microchipping their pets – our canine family members are increasingly at risk from those looking to sell them on for a quick profit or, in some horrifying cases, for dog fighting.

Fifteen years ago, after our beloved family dog died, I hurried out to get a replacement. I thought I was being responsible, searching only Kennel Club-approved breeders, and making sure that I didn’t buy a puppy that had been cruelly treated (puppy farms are a scourge, and unsavoury breeders go to great lengths to conceal the dogs origins – always insist on seeing a dog with its parents at the seller’s home). But I was young and foolish, and fell in love with the idea of a pug. Small and squishy with huge, rheumy eyes, dogs of this breed either compel you to hug them or repel you entirely.

A tiny black ball was duly mine, and he was a rarity at my local park for a time, where schoolgirls would flock to pet him. Until, one day, he wasn’t such a rarity. Suddenly, pugs popping up all over the place, their weird, gremlin appeal hard to deny. Like the Chihuahua before them, these little pedigree show-dogs became a stylish accessory, and demand increased – as did their notorious health problems, which led to many being abandoned.

Pugs are still around, but the trend has moved on. French bulldogs are now the canine du jour. You know the ones – wrinkled faces, pointy ears, bow legs – they’re everywhere. These dogs are expensive. A French bulldog can cost up to £3,000, and breeders can’t meet the demand fast enough. They are being smuggled over to the UK. They are being bred in terrible conditions. They are being born with medical problems that vets warn of in dogs with such flat faces. At some point the trend will move on, and you’ll see more than a few of these in rescue centres, but at the moment they’re being nicked to sell on or breed. The theft of French bulldogs has gone up by 27% in just one year.

We are obsessed with designer dogs. No, I hear you cry, not everyone! Well done if you have a rescue, or a mongrel, or a working dog and are currently shaking your head in bewilderment. But many people, myself included, fell for dogs that have been bred to look cute, without much thought for their health, or their provenance, or for the thousands of dogs in shelters who need homes but don’t have a cool portmanteau name like the Cockapoo or the Labradoodle.

I was always worried about my pug being stolen when I tied him up outside a shop or let him out of my sight in the park. I knew that he was considered a valuable asset, a status that my other dog (a rescue) definitely doesn’t experience. But later on, I became less panicked about this possibility, as he experienced health problems, a slowing gait, and an enraging case of selective hearing.

Nobody is to blame if they experience the utter devastation of having their beloved pup stolen. I cannot imagine the grief and terror. But for this, and many other reasons, we need to wean ourselves off these expensive and in-demand dogs. I’ve contributed to the problem, but now, with a 15-year-old pug who finds it hard to use his back legs and whose rheumy eyes have long clouded over, I can promise that any future dogs will be rescue dogs. They are less appealing to dognappers, and at less risk of health problems. And I can promise you a rescue dog will love you just as much as a designer one, if not more.

Dogs aren’t meant to be “designer”: they’re meant to be mucky and sometimes eccentric and strong enough to race around the park. If we reassess what we want from our canine companions, we’ll help drive down dog theft – a crime that those of us who have bought designer dogs have unwittingly contributed to.

• Bella Mackie is a freelance journalist