Dognapped in Mirdif

Dubai: When her two Siberian Huskies were stolen from her front yard in Mirdif, 14-year-old Fatima Mohammad vowed to move heaven and earth to get them back.

Today, that hunt continues.

“I was on holiday with my family when the house staff called us on July 5 to say our two dogs Lucy and Rex had been stolen from their cages,” says Fatima. “We filed an immediate police complaint over the phone. I felt so helpless being so far from them.”

A week later when Fatima and her family returned home, they learned that the dogs were locked up in their cage in the family’s garden at night, when the dognapping occurred. “Someone must have jumped over the wall of our villa, into the garden, since one of the lights on the garden wall had been broken. The cage the dogs were sleeping in had the lock broken. Some of the bars on the cage had been twisted and distorted.”

no clue

Heartbroken, the teenage Emirati ran from pillar to post looking for her dogs. “One day I got a phone call from a guy who said that his dogs had been stolen from his home too and that he had eventually tracked down the thief. He didn’t give me any details except a number I could call under the pretext of wanting to buy a Siberian Husky. He said that if this was the same gang that had stolen my dogs, chances are he would be willing to sell them at a price, and at that point, I could contact the police.”

However, the man claimed to have no Siberian Huskies at the time, but promised to let Fatima know in the event that the situation changed. “Over the last month, I’ve had umpteen conversations with other dog owners in Dubai,” says Fatima. “Many others have had their beloved pedigree dogs stolen from their homes and gardens. This gang of thieves doesn’t realise that to them, this is all about money. To us, it’s our pets. I love my dogs. They are both 15 months old. I’m doing all I can to find them. The police haven’t done very much except come home and check the cage and state they would need to do a fingerprint test. But that’s not been done yet, and as more and more time lapses my fears intensify. What if my dogs are being mistreated? Or worse, involved in some sort of violence or dog fight? They’re domestic pets. They love their home and I know they didn’t run away or escape. It’s clear they were stolen. Even the police admit this. If anyone can help me find my dogs again, I would be eternally grateful.”