His reply to Gareth Johnson MP in yesterdays Dog Theft debacle. I can only assume he thinks we are all stupid. Mr Raab claims that the current system is fine as it is, and the new sentencing guidelines are sufficient. He says Judges have adequate power to sentence dog thieves, up to 7 years in prison. When in the history of the British legal system did a dog thief ever end up in Crown Court in front of a Judge? Never. I challenge Mr Raab to give one single example of a dog thief sentenced in Crown Court The truth is this. Dog Thieves, if prosecuted at all end up in Magistrates court. The maximum prison sentence Magistrates can impose, ever, is 6 months in prison and that is reserved for serious assaults and robberies. The insane treatment of ‘Chunky’ the small dog stolen and tortured is testament to this. The pathetic perpetrators got a 2 year banning order from keeping dogs and a pathetic fine. Is that justice? 500,000 people signed a petition saying no its not. Mr Raab claims ‘we cannot create a new offence for every conceived situation as this will complicate the law and make it less transparent’ We can have an offence of ‘abstracting electricity’ ‘making off without payment’ ‘theft from a shop or stall’ but not ‘Dog Theft’ There are 10 million dogs in the UK, 25% of households have one. There are probably more dog owners than voted for the conservatives at the last election. A specific crime of ‘Dog Theft’ or ‘Pet Theft’ would make the law absolutely transparent and less complicated. Our recent survey of over 1,000 dog owners shows that over 93% want mandatory prison sentences of over 6 months, over 57% want more than 3 years for any Dog Theft regardless of whether the thief is an alcoholic, drug addict or has money problems, steal a dog, go to prison. (see the survey results here) https://reports.smartsurvey.co.uk/3oa5oEG4WM12118GDczTTAtGE/id/214138 Mr Raab thinks that the new compulsory micro chipping of dogs will ‘act as a deterrent and make a micro chipped dog less likely to be stolen’. 83% of dogs are already microchipped and it doesn’t make a tad of difference. Why should a thief care if the dog is microchipped if is stolen to use as bait for dog fighting, exporting or used for illegal puppy farms. As there is nobody scanning dogs for a microchip anyway unless they end up with a dog warden of pound why does he believe thieves will care.It’s like saying that because cars have number plates they are less likely to be stolen and we know that’s rubbish and everybody can see a car number plate. Unless the dog has a beacon shining from its rectum like Batmans bat on Gotham City nobody knows which dogs are chipped and which are not. Nearly 25,000 people have signed our petition demanding a change in the law. We need every dog owner to sign and then perhaps we get a real debate in parliament with more than just 8 MP present.