While searching for her own dog she believed to be stolen, Aynsley Foss has come across numerous other rural dog owners whose dogs went mysteriously missing.
Foss claims her white Maremma Sheepdog named Dixie was stolen on Nov. 27 after she found her Airtag was manually removed and thrown on the side of the highway. Finding the Airtag meant there was some human interference in Dixie’s disappearance, she said.
Foss quickly jumped into action and created a social media campaign in search of her dog.
She flew drones and even recruited a neighbour to search for the dog in their helicopter.
“As this has gone on, I've noticed there's other dogs stolen,” Foss said. “People have sent me information where someone else's dog was stolen, so I've reached out and there's now nine dogs that I have documented that are stolen and have been reported to the police.”
Foss was initially turned away by police when she tried to report the theft, but after being told it was considered property theft she filed a police report.
In speaking with other dog theft victims, she noticed they were all rural dog owners living between Edmonton all the way to her own property west of Airdrie.
The stolen dogs included other maremma dogs, great pyrenees, border collies, german shepherds, and other breeds commonly seen as work or guardian dogs in rural areas.
While she understands police have limited resources and likely don’t have the capacity to find her dog, she hopes to work with the other nine dog theft victims to put together a case for RCMP to investigate.
“And because dogs have to be really only considered property theft, they're like, ‘Well, your dog was only $400, or is only $1000,’” she said. “But it's not like it's your bicycle that was stolen, they’re living beings.”
Foss mentioned that she had talked to a private investigator who said the best way to recover a dog is by posting photos and spreading it online. People will send in photos of dogs they find and sometimes the missing dog may be recovered.
“So that's kind of the investigation that I've been doing for my dog, but given that this is a trend and it's targeting rural rural people, I think that there needs to be someone investigating it,” she said.
While Foss has put out a $5,000 reward for the return of Dixie, she also started a GoFundMe page to hire an investigation firm to look into the disappearance of these nine dogs.
The page has raised $3,275 so far, with a goal of $7,500.
She said the RCMP’s process might take some time and in the meantime Foss and the other dog owners want to find their dogs before they’re sold or hurt.
“We want to make sure our dogs are saved,” she said.
To find out more about this issue, go to the BringDixieHome Facebook page.
