I was talking to a buddy last night, and he said one of his friends had his Rottweiler stolen about a year ago. Someone walked into the yard, cut the cable and took off with him. So a few months ago, the cops stop by with just a photo and ask him if the dog looks like his, he says yes.

Turns out, it was obtained by someone running a puppy mill. They had AKC registered dogs, and when they would have litters, they would report a couple of extra puppies and register these non-existent dogs with the AKC and hold onto the registrations. Then, when they stole a dog, they would find one of the registrations that matched up closely on age so if anyone called them out on the dog, they could say that it was their dog and they would have the papers for it.

Anyway, they took about 400 dogs out of this place, and gave them all to shelters. My buddy's friend didn't get his dog back because they didn't know what shelter it went to.

I'm not sure what they were doing with the dogs if they were chipped or tattooed. This was in a rural part of the state, and most of the dogs they were stealing were farm dogs, so they probably were not chipped or tattooed.

Interesting, and very disturbing. So sorry he hasn't gotten his dog back - maybe he will be able to search now, knowing where to more or less look? A puppy mill raid with that many dogs being seized is sure to grab media and local attention.

I would be on the phone to shelters and also the media if needed. A stolen dog angle for a dog raid is an interesting one I'm sure some local reporter would jump up and down on.