Haslingden family: Our pet Zola's been 'dog-napped' (From Lancashire Telegraph)

Haslingden family: Our pet Zola's been 'dog-napped'

5:08pm Wednesday 1st September 2010 in Rossendale By Nazia Parveen, Reporter

A HEARTBROKEN family are appealing for the return of their pet Zola after claiming she has been ‘dog-napped’.

Thieves lured the four-year-old Rottweiler out of the back yard of a house in Manchester Road, Haslingden, before bundling her into the back of a maroon-coloured van, the family said.

Owners Steph Tunstall and Neil Grimes were on holiday in Spain when relatives who had been taking care of Zola contacted them to say she had been stolen.

The distraught pair decided to return home on the next available flight and began searching for their missing black and tan coloured dog who they had bought as a six-week-old pup.

Steph, 31, who lives in North Street, pleaded for the safe return of her pet.

Zola suffers from arthritis in her back legs and needs to take regular medication to control the condition.

She added: “My brother Stephen had been looking after Zola for us.

“She was playing in his back yard when he nipped in to answer a phone call.

“But he came out and she had disappeared.

“He ran out into the street to look for her and he bumped into this boy.

“The boy said that he saw a man bundle her into a van and then drive off.

“We are really devastated and we’ll do anything to get her back.”

Further witnesses, including a woman who works in a nearby bakery, have also contacted Steph about a man with the dog standing near to a van and acting suspiciously.

Since Zola’s disappearance Steph and her family have put posters up in the area offering a reward for her return.

She added: “I am worried that she’ll be used for dog fighting or she’ll just be dumped when they realise that she can’t be used for breeding as she has been neutered.

"She is a lovely dog and we just want her back home in one piece.”

Police are investigating the incident, which happ-ened on Monday after-rnoon. Anyone with any information can contact police on 01254 51212.