Pet Theft Up Fifty Percent Since Last Year: Evidence Of A Downed Economy Or Utter Depravity?

Pets are being stolen and sold on the street to dog-fighting rings or research labs.

Stolen somewhere in New Jersey, a pitbull mix and a bulldog were found in a Newark cemetery tied to headstones, badly hurt, their faces and throats slashed with boxcutters. The pair had been used as bait for fighter dogs in training, their faces cut to give the fighter dogs a taste for blood.

Dogs vanish every day from yards, homes, shops, sidewalks, shelters, and cars.

"The owners think their pets escaped. But no," says Associated Humane Societies executive director Roseann Trezza, who rescued the Newark pair. "Unless you see someone taking a pet, you can't say for sure it was stolen. And nobody wants to believe their pet was stolen. They'd rather think it escaped."

According to the American Kennel Club, pet theft has increased by 50 percent since last year.

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