Stolen Pets (FOI Ref:2751A/25)
Request
I request the following information for the period 1 January 2021 to 31 December 2025 (or the latest available date) for your police force area:
Q1 -Total number of reported pet theft incidents (all species) broken down by year.
Q2 -Total number of reported dog theft incidents broken down by year.
Q3 -Number of stolen pets (all species) recovered and returned to owners.
Q4 -Number of stolen dogs recovered and returned to owners.
Response
Please be advised that the data is provided in PDF, as this is deemed the most secure format to avoid any possibility of `hidden data` being inadvertently shared.
However, it can be converted by the user into CSV or excel. There are guidelines how to do this available on the internet.
Our data is not organised in such a way as to allow us to provide this information within the appropriate (cost) limit within the Freedom of Information (FOI) Act (see ‘Reason for Decision’ below).
Although excess cost removes the force’s obligations under the Freedom of Information Act, as a gesture of goodwill I have supplied information, relative to your request, retrieved before it was realised that the fees limit would be exceeded. I trust this is helpful, but it does not affect our legal right to rely on the fee’s regulations for the remainder of the request.
Q1 -Total number of reported pet theft incidents (all species) broken down by year.
Pet thefts
|
Property Description |
2021 |
2022 |
2023 |
2024 |
2025 |
Total |
|
Pet animal-bird |
4 |
4 |
2 |
2 |
3 |
15 |
|
Pet animal-dog |
87 |
99 |
75 |
57 |
66 |
384 |
|
Pet animal-other |
6 |
1 |
2 |
5 |
19 |
33 |
|
Cat |
15 |
12 |
15 |
22 |
25 |
89 |
|
Horse |
1 |
2 |
0 |
1 |
1 |
5 |
|
Rabbit |
0 |
1 |
2 |
1 |
2 |
6 |
|
Tortoise |
2 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
3 |
|
Total |
115 |
120 |
96 |
88 |
116 |
535 |
Other animals
|
Property Description |
2021 |
2022 |
2023 |
2024 |
2025 |
Total |
|
Cattle |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
1 |
1 |
|
Freshwater |
2 |
2 |
1 |
1 |
1 |
7 |
|
Livestock |
0 |
1 |
1 |
0 |
1 |
3 |
|
Poultry |
3 |
1 |
2 |
4 |
8 |
18 |
|
Reptile |
1 |
1 |
0 |
1 |
0 |
3 |
|
Sheep |
0 |
2 |
1 |
1 |
0 |
4 |
|
Tropical |
0 |
1 |
0 |
1 |
0 |
2 |
|
Wild |
0 |
0 |
0 |
1 |
0 |
1 |
|
Total |
6 |
8 |
5 |
9 |
11 |
39 |
Q2 -Total number of reported dog theft incidents broken down by year.
|
Year |
Number of incidents |
|
2021 |
87 |
|
2022 |
99 |
|
2023 |
75 |
|
2024 |
57 |
|
2025 |
66 |
|
Total |
384 |
When a member of the public phones the Police, it is initially recorded as:
ROC (record of contact): Where information has been received and Police need no further involvement or action. For example: There will be a road closed on XXXX. Police do not attend a ROC.
Incident: An incident is created where Police involvement is required. Incident: An incident is created where Police involvement is required. If a crime is identified from that incident, then a crime is created for the relevant offence. Not all incidents have a crime created.
Recorded Crimes: These are created from an incident above and are crimes that require recording / investigating.
Q3 -Number of stolen pets (all species) recovered and returned to owners.
Q4 -Number of stolen dogs recovered and returned to owners.
For question 3 and 4 to identify where Pets have been recovered, I would need to read each of the records to identify any where this had been recorded. I understand this is not a mandatory field, therefore, may not be recorded.
Reason for decision
Please note that researching each individual case would exceed the appropriate limit (FOIA, s.12).
535 files approx. x 5 mins per file = 44.58 hours
This exceeds the 18 hours for the purpose of cost for the FOI Act.
The cost of compliance with the whole of your request is above the amount to which we are legally required to respond, i.e. the cost of locating and retrieving the information would exceed the appropriate costs limit under section 12(1) of the FOI Act 2000. For West Midlands Police, the appropriate limit is set at £450, as prescribed by the Freedom of Information and Data Protection (Appropriate Limit and Fees) Regulations 2004, S.I. 3244.
Further information on section 12 of FOI is available here:
Additional information
For further information and data on West Midlands Police see our publication scheme and disclosure log
Freedom of Information - West Midlands Police (west-midlands.police.uk)
Published items | West Midlands Police
Right of appeal
Your attention is drawn to your right to request a re-examination of your case under West Midlands Police review procedure, which can be found at:
Reviews and Appeals - Freedom of Information - West Midlands Police (west-midlands.police.uk)
Please note that such an appeal must be received within 40 working days of the date of this correspondence. Any such request received after this time will only be considered at the discretion of the FOI Unit.