Stolen Dogs’ Owners Fear Illicit Plot

Two Valley owners of English bulldogs who said their pets were stolen last week fear that the animals, normally docile but known for their extremely powerful jaws, are being snatched to cross-breed with pit bulls to produce fighting dogs.

Both Amanda Heredia of Van Nuys and Jim Walsh of Sylmar were scouring a Van Nuys neighborhood Tuesday where one of the dogs disappeared and another was last seen.

Heredia said the incident last Wednesday was the third time since December that a bulldog was taken from her home. She has distributed $500 reward posters for Ruby, a 7-month-old solid red female with a white blaze on her face and head and white paws.

Walsh is searching for Patches, a 12-week-old brindle female that disappeared from his yard Friday, out of a pen protected by a six-foot-high wall.

Then on Saturday, four youths brought a bulldog to Heredia, asking if it was the one she was missing. It matched the description of Walsh’s pup, she said, although she didn’t learn until Monday that Walsh’s dog was missing.

Walsh and Heredia, both members of the Pacific Coast Bulldog Club, said bulldog breeders and owners have been reporting the disappearance of pets at the rate of one a month for the past year. The thieves “seem to be zeroing in on high-priced dogs,” Walsh said, adding that a bulldog generally sells for $1,200 to $2,000.

Walsh, a bullog breeder, said a number of other breeders have reported receiving calls from prospective buyers who wanted a bulldog to mate with a pit bull for fighting purposes. Organizing dog fights is illegal, he noted, and breeders he knows refuse to sell to such people if they know the purpose. “Generally, we try to sell only to reputable buyers,” he said.

As the club’s volunteer bulldog rescue coordinator, Walsh picks up unwanted or abandoned bulldogs from shelters for placement in homes. He said most of the dogs he saves are females that are skinny from poor care and over-breeding. Often, there is no way to trace whether the dog was stolen, he said.

“Whether [thieves] are reselling them or not, we can’t be sure,” Walsh said, “But they seem to be using them for breeding.”

Walsh said he has raised dogs for 15 years and owned bulldogs for five years--all without incident until now. On Tuesday, he patrolled the neighborhood near the Van Nuys Civic Center, handing out fliers with a picture of his missing dog.

“I’m walking door-to-door, trying to get any leads I can,” he said.

The theft occurred after Walsh, who had advertised dogs for sale, said he gave his address to a man who said he was calling from Van Nuys. The pup was missing about the time Walsh said he had expected the man to arrive.

He said he immediately called police, but was frustrated by the experience. “The police just laugh at you,” he said. “They say that unless you see somebody actually take the dog, they consider it to be just a runaway.”

He said he was given three different numbers and waited on hold for 30 minutes before he was able to file a police report by phone. By Tuesday, Walsh said, he had not heard back from detectives and was continuing his private investigation.

Heredia said two of four other bulldogs taken from her home last December have not been recovered. “We’ve been through all of this before. It’s just so discouraging.”

Typically, complaints about missing pets are referred to the Department of Animal Care and Control, said Los Angeles Police Sgt. Paul Anderson of the Van Nuys Division. However, he said, if police do take a theft report, detectives will investigate.

Heredia said she and her husband have abandoned plans to breed the snub-nosed dogs as a hobby. “We really love bulldogs,” Heredia said. “But it just breaks our hearts to lose them.”