BLUE SPRINGS, Mo. — A Blue Springs dog owner has an alert for pet owners. She said she caught someone trying to make off with her Brindle English Mastiff. The police department was already working on a separate incident in which a mastiff went missing.
The latest incident was reported by an owner, who almost lost her dog, and is worried that it’s all part of a plot involving what is known as ‘dog flipping.’ Owner Cassie Conrad loves her dog as if it is her child and finds the recent incident at her home quite disturbing.
“She kept staring at something and barking, which really grabbed my attention, like she must see something,” Conrad said.
Conrad went to check it out and noticed a white, four-door car.
“I saw two individuals I couldn’t make out in specific. They had the door cracked and they were trying to lure my dog,” she said.
Conrad said they slammed the doors and sped off once they saw her. She volunteers with a mastiff rescue group, and is well aware of what’s know as ‘dog flipping.’
“They try to take them and flip them for a profit and raise an amount of money. Sometimes they’re sold to laboratories for testing,” she said.
Conrad recently spoke to a woman who reported a similar situation. But in this case, her mastiff was actually taken.
“After speaking with her, she said there was no way he would have gotten out on his own,” Conrad said.
Blue Springs police has a report of a mastiff that went missing from the 3500 block of Lake Shore Drive. Conrad doesn’t think it’s a coincidence. She says purebred mastiff pups can fetch over $1,000. She says she doesn’t want to see anymore dogs disappear, for what she believes is a plot for profit. She urges dog owner to get their pets microchipped.
“It’s heartbreak that no family deserves to go through,” she said.
