Animal welfare workers and the Abbotsford police are looking for a thief – and the three-month-old puppy he took from the city’s SPCA shelter.
Chanelle, a brindle cane corso/mastiff mix, was stolen between 1:30 and 3:30 p.m. Wednesday. She is shaved around her abdomen from being recently spayed, and she has a large and prominent ID tattoo in her ear: 33ABIY.
“We’re worried and heartbroken,” says Jodi Dunlop, manager of the BC SPCA’s Abbotsford Branch on Industrial Way. “Many people had expressed an interest in adopting her and we were in the middle of reviewing those applications to place her in the best home.”
Dog kennels are always locked when the shelter is open to the public. The thief who took Chanelle removed a key from the shelter’s volunteer staging area and used it to unlock her kennel. The key has been kept in the same location, intended to make it accessible to volunteers, for nearly 30 years and had never been misused until Wednesday.
Dunlop fears the individual who took Chanelle will attempt to have her ears cropped in the extreme fashion of many cane corsos. In addition to the surgery being painful and unnecessary, it would compromise her ear tattoo.
“She’s a great little puppy and we have spent a lot of time socializing her and teaching her the skills that all puppies need to have in order to be around people, and we want the opportunity to give her a great home.”
Dunlop adds that Chanelle still has stitches from being spayed, and was under vet care to ensure the incision was healing properly.
Anyone who has seen her or who may know her location is asked to call the BC SPCA emergency line at 604-834-7872 or Abbotsford Police at 604-859-5225.