Dear animal lovers,

The Belgian Court of Appeal could have returned our stolen Maya to us during the hearing that was supposed to take place in 2 days. 

Instead, it decided to grant Maya's thief an additional delay. Maya's thief filed appeal against his conviction by the criminal courts on July 9th.

Apparently 3,5 months wasn't enough time to figure out a sixth lie to justify the theft of our Leonberg Maya. 

Maya's thief has vowed to either prolong the court procedures until our Maya is dead, if not he'ld kill her himself. He sure is a man of his word.

This means our Maya continues to be locked up and neglected and abused, even 1,5 years after her theft.

I didn't dare tell my daughter about this yet.

She's been counting the days until the 28th of October and has put all her fur toys in the closet "so Maya has enough room to sleep comfortably" (next to her in her bed).

More details (in Dutch) in this article.

If you want to help us, please share the link to this petition so we can raise awareness about animal theft and how this is (not) treated by the Belgian legal system.

And here is a follow-up (sorry, Dutch only) on the 2 stolen horses of Rianka Diepeveen.

It turns out the Belgian government service Dierenwelzijn knows that the horse thief is a known animal abuser but chose not to inform the police.

The police in turn, knows where Rianka's stolen horses are hidden, but refuses to give the owner the address of her horses so she can't get them back.

Instead, the police ordered Rianka Diepeveen to hand over the horse passports to the thief. She was not allowed to file a complaint for horse theft, meaning the horse theft can and will not be investigated.

She is dead worried and desperately looking for her horses, who are both 24 and in need of urgent care. Thank you for sharing this article that contains pictures of her stolen horses. They are somewhere in or near the Brecht - Zandvoorde region in Belgium. 

In the meanwhile, Ben Weyts, the Belgian Minister of Animal Welfare, has launched a PR campaign in the press to praise the "excellent cooperation between his service Dierenwelzijn and the police, making Belgium a leading example for Europe in terms of animal protection". 

With a very sad heart,

(mum) Anke, (daughter) Anaya, (Leonberg) Maya, (mum) Rianka, (horse) Dante, (horse) Rumbera