Pet Theft: How your dog's nose could hold the secret to helping you find them

Alfie posing for Smart Snout profile

The Nottinghamshire drone pilot, who searches for missing dogs in his spare time, has joined forces with an app creator to help save missing dogs.

The loss of a dog, whether it be lost or stolen, is a particularly traumatic and emotional experience. And, with lockdown being 'the worst year ever' for dog thefts according to experts, owners are eager to find a solution.

Phil James is a drone pilot from Woodborough in Nottinghamshire. By day, he uses his drone for work. But, in his spare time, he uses it to search for lost dogs. As of last week, he has now helped recover 29 missing pooches.

  • Phil James, Drone Pilot

The drone operator has joined forces with app creator Bradley James Watson, and with their combined passions for dogs and their safety, 'Smart Snout' was born.

Whilst it is currently a legal requirement to have your dog microchipped in the UK, the increasing concern is that pet-theives can remove these chips and discard them.

Smart Snout App

The app is focused around the unique identification pattern on a dogs snout - much like a human fingerprint. It's free to download and prompts you to register your dog as safe and well by taking a picture of its nose, and registering some of its basic details like name, breed and colour.

Once you've registered your dog, if it were to be lost or stolen and then recovered, the finder could simply scan the snout. At this point, the owner and the finder will be alerted to the dog's identity and, more importantly, help to get them home.

  • Bradley James Watson, Owner and Founder - Smart Snout

Christine Castles, a dog owner from Nottingham, is one of the 400 people to already have the app. She told ITV Central that 8-year-old Schnauzer Aflie is her best friend, and she can't imagine losing him.

Earlier this week, it was announced that pet abduction is to become a criminal offence under Government plans to crackdown on dognappers. The law change will see the police improve the recording and tracking of pet abduction cases, after the creation of the Pet Theft Taskforce in May.

Under current law, if an animal is abducted the offence is treated as "loss of property" to the owner. The government has decided that "this does not reflect the true severity of this crime. The new offence acknowledges that animals are "far more than property' - Home Secretary, Priti Patel.

The RSPCA have said they are "really pleased" with the proposed law change.