A Perthshire missing pets group says it is “absolutely devastated” after vital camera equipment was taken from a search area.
Missing Pets Perth and Kinross discovered two of its specialist trail cameras had been removed from a site it was monitoring this week.
The voluntary group, run by Katie McCandless-Thomas and Christine Faulds Quinn, has helped reunite hundreds of owners with their their missing pets since it formed five years ago.
Field cameras are used to help capture the pets’ whereabouts when a physical human presence is not possible, or interaction would scare the animal away.
Katie – who set up the group after her own dog, Charlie, went missing – realised the pair of cameras, valued at £100, had been removed while checking on a remote site on the outskirts of Perth.
Their disappearance followed instances of vandalism to the group’s dog traps and other equipment.
Katie told The Courier: “The cameras are a vital part of equipment and are our eyes on the ground when we can’t be there, so to find them removed or stolen is hugely disappointing.
“Everyone is absolutely devastated.
“Thankfully it wasn’t our more expensive ones that link up to our phones as they are £200 to replace, but it is still the loss of cameras that we use in pretty much all searches.
“Vandalism and theft costs not only impact heavily financially on what is a voluntary organisation, but also restrict our efforts considerably.
“We don’t want to remove valuable help in the form of equipment, but if this continues we may have to limit their use.”
Equipment ‘vital’ to missing pet searches
Katie says some equipment may have been removed by members of the public through ignorance.
She added: “It could be the same with someone finding the cameras and thinking that by removing them, they are doing good.
“We are appealing to the public to please leave any such equipment, as it is vital to our efforts to return a missing pet back to its beloved owner.”
Since the cameras were taken, one has been handed into a local police station.
Conversation