Dogfight kidnap fears in Masterton

DESPERATE: Masterton dog-owners and friends Shorty Townsend and Christina Ellmers are afraid that chalk scrawls on their front fences mean a dogfighting ring has marked out their pets for theft.

Two Masterton dog-owners are terrified thieves from a dogfighting ring may have eyed their bullmastiff pets for kidnap.

Friends Christina Ellmers and Shorty Townsend each own a registered and microchipped dog of the breed - a 7-month-old neapolitan bullmastiff and a 12-year-old dogue de bordeaux huntaway cross.

Bullmastiffs are sometimes used in combat or as bait animals in organised dog fights and Mrs Townsend said she had been warned a fortnight ago that thieves were marking with all-weather chalk the gates, letterboxes or fences of dog owners to signal the presence of an animal that could be later stolen.

On Monday she discovered a yellow chalk mark on her fence and was planning on taking her pet to work because she was fearful thieves would nab the animal while she was away from her home.

"When I saw the chalk mark my heart just dropped. I don't feel safe any more. This just has to stop," Mrs Townsend said.

Paw Justice, a non-profit organisation fighting animal abuse and neglect, had the same day posted on Facebook about an Auckland woman who had her property marked with chalk ahead of the attempted kidnap of her staffordshire bull terrier cross animal. The post also referred to a Campbell Live television segment devoted to the same method of dog thefts.

Mrs Ellmers said she had talked on Saturday with her two young children about the chalk scrawls and the possibility the story was a hoax. That afternoon her son discovered a blue chalk mark next to the family letterbox.

Mrs Ellmers reported the chalk marks and her fears to police, she said, and Mrs Townsend also planned to make a similar report. Both women had removed the marks.

"It might be a hoax but I don't want to push it in case we lose our dog," Mrs Ellmers said.

Mrs Ellmers said her family also had a fox terrier and a maltese shih tzu and had owned the mastiff bitch since the animal was about 12 weeks old.

Dogs of the same breed sell for $800 or more, she said, and all her pets were being kept close at hand on the fully fenced property, which is located in central residential Masterton.

She said the mastiff would now be locked in its kennel, which also will be shifted in to a garage on the property.

"We can't let the dogs roam on their own property and have to stay out with them while they pee. This is round the clock and none of us have had a full night's sleep since we found that chalk mark.

"We're all living on tenterhooks."