Public warned to be vigilant of bogus dog wardens trying to steal dogs

Always ask for identification.

A dog owner in Cork has reported that a man recently attempted to steal her two dogs from outside her home. Ashling Willis from Kanturk said a man called to her house purporting to be a dog warden and claimed that she did not have a dog licence. Speaking to Patricia Messinger on C103's Cork Today Show, Willis said she noticed her dogs had started barking outside. When she investigated she discovered a small green van pulled up at her gate with the back doors open. She said the man claimed to be a dog warden and that he was there to seize her dogs because his records showed that she didn't have any dog licence. He said the dogs would be returned when the matter was resolved. Both dogs have licences and Willis, a dog trainer and an animal behaviourist, said both are chipped and have passports as well. When she asked the man for some form of identification, he returned to his van and climbed into the front seat but Willis did not let him close the door of his van. He claimed he'd forgotten his ID and then fled the scene when Willis said she was phoning the Gardaí to sort out the situation. Willis described him as a man with a Tipperary accent in his 50s with curly grey hair and piercing blue eyes. When she tried to check the licence plate on the van he was driving, she found it was covered in black tape. "I’m trying to raise awareness of it because it happens quite a lot," Willis said. "I was on the Irish lost and found dogs page on Facebook last night and I posted it. Two people contacted me. It has happened in Carlow recently and Waterford during the summer in exactly the same way."