Cocker spaniel stolen eight years ago is reunited with owners

by · Mail Online

A dog stolen eight years ago has been reunited with its owners.

Daisy, a Cocker Spaniel, was taken from the Mole Valley area of Surrey back in 2016 when she was just a one-year-old.

The black-and-white working gun dog was stolen along with three other dogs when thieves took the pets from the garden kennels they were housed in.

One of the dogs was hit by a car and killed as it tried to escape its captors, two other are yet to be found.

Nearly eight years to the day since Daisy was taken, on Tuesday, October 29, police were told that someone had tried to update her microchip details.

Daisy (pictured), a Cocker Spaniel, was taken from her home by thieves in 2016 and had been missing for eight years
Storm (pictured), a patchy white Patterdale terrier was stolen but police believe she may have died due to her age
Tilly (pictured), a black working cocker spaniel was also taken during the night of the break-in and remains missing

PC Laura Rowley, a rural crime officer at Surrey Police, contacted the microchip company to find out the details of the new owners, who had adopted the spaniel in good faith and did not know she had been stolen.

The new owners handed over Daisy, who is now slightly deaf, and following a three-hour round trip, she was finally handed over to her original owners who she 'recognised immediately'.

There was 'not a dry eye in the house' when Daisy was taken back to her home in Dorking, Surrey Police said. 

The other dogs - Tilly, a black working cocker spaniel, and Storm, a patchy white Patterdale terrier - remain missing and are believed to be elderly or have possibly died because of their age, police said.

'However, if you have any information that may be relevant, please contact us quoting PR/45160097926,' a Surrey Police spokesman said. Dog thefts have been on the increase across the UK.

According to police figures, 2,290 dogs were stolen last year - a 6% increase from 2022.

Surrey Police previously said the national increase in demand for dogs and puppies during the Coronavirus pandemic 'also created a gap in the market for dog thieves and illegal breeders'.