It looks like someone shot them in the face with buckshot. Eric Sakach, the director of the West Coast regional office of the Humane Society of the United States, has worked undercover to bust dog-fighting rings from Florida to California. According to Sakach, the people who run the high-level rings don't take unnecessary risks by stealing dogs and cats in someone's yard. Those brazen thefts, he said, usually involve street-level dog fighters who engage their dogs in turf disputes or who simply use winning pit bulls as a status symbol. But there are other ways to find a cat.
Some pet thieves have other motives.
A few phone calls later, they found the woman and the dog was returned to her owner. Shelter director Pat Wilcox said the dog apparently was taken by the woman's former caretaker, who was dismissed months earlier. Mackay said black animals used for ritualistic sacrifices tend to disappear around Halloween. And he said hunting dogs, especially beagles and hounds, are often pilfered in the United States and taken to Canada to augment teams of dogs that track bear and other big game. If they get torn up or lost in the process, Mackay said, no one cares as the dogs are stolen anyway.