I just love The Age – not. Just as we are deeply immersed in the two biggest political stories of the year – the media laws and leadership speculation – and the on-line Age leads with this story.
Fears for dogs after spate of thefts
Police are concerned that dogs stolen in a spate of thefts in towns to the west of Melbourne are being used as bait in illegal dog fights.
Eleven dogs have been stolen from homes in towns such as Bacchus Marsh, Ballan, Ballarat and Sebastopol over the last three months. The thefts have taken place both during the day and at night.
There have also been reports of people whistling over the back fences of houses that have dog runs or enclosures, and of people being caught in the act of trying to steal dogs.
The stolen dogs are mostly small breeds, such as Chihuahuas and Jack Russells, Bacchus Marsh Senior Sergeant John Gibson said.
Senior Sergeant Gibson said police were concerned that the dogs were being stolen to use as bait in illegal dog fights – in which dogs are often killed – or for breeding on puppy farms.
‘‘There have been illegal dog fighting rings broken up in this area, which is part of the reason we’re concerned,’’ he told Fairfax Media.
He said that while there was no evidence the dogs were being used as bait in illegal fights, it was unlikely they were being stolen to keep as pets.
‘‘If it’s the same people stealing them, they’d have an awful lot of pets by now,’’ Senior Sergeant Gibson said.
Investigators want to speak to anybody who might have seen a white ute, a green ute and a silver Hyundai sedan in the area.
Police have been told that several dogs have been seen in the trays of the two utes, which might be Toyota Hiluxes.
It doesn’t strike one as the most optimal use of police resources, either.
Still, it beats chasing real criminals like murderers, rapists, drug dealers, street thugs, housebreakers, car rebirthers, etc.
Rabz
20 Mar 13 at 4:46 pm
I dunno, that story’s actually pretty interesting/horrifying.
James
20 Mar 13 at 4:46 pm
They’d probably be leading with serious political news if their print product hadn’t gone ‘compact’.
Although, I’m not handling the suspense of the leadership intrigue very well – and it won’t bring forward the election – so I’d prefer cat fashion parade stories until September… then KAPOW! WAMMO!
Michael
20 Mar 13 at 4:47 pm
There’s nothing horrifying about Chihuahuas – they’re possibly one of the most useless, pathetic creatures on this entire planet.
Rabz
20 Mar 13 at 4:48 pm
They were standing in the line behind TLS when God was handing out those attributes. The only difference is TLS took the last bit of horrifying that God had left. He still had plenty of useless and pathetic to share between TLS and the Chihuahuas though.
Huckleberry Chunkwot
20 Mar 13 at 4:52 pm
If Conroy had his way, it would be a story about Young Libs stealing dogs to use in their pit-bull fights and bear baiting. Or else how Julia swam through flooded river waters to rescue an adorable blue heeler.
cuckoo
20 Mar 13 at 5:04 pm
Imagine what crazy Government policy the ALP would create when Fairfax goes broke. Fuck me, that thought is scary.
Andrew
20 Mar 13 at 5:09 pm
…possibly one of the most useless, pathetic creatures on this entire planet.
Dr Faustus
20 Mar 13 at 5:10 pm
Meh. Dog of a paper reports on dog story.
Gab
20 Mar 13 at 5:11 pm
If Conroy has his way, there’ll be the Running Dogs of Capitalism (MurdochMurdochMurdoch at the moment) in that doggie tale somewhere.
I know they are busy replacing the Commo OldSpeak with Commo NewSpeak, so we are now getting Fair Speech (let’s just call it FairSpeak and be done with it), but those old tags of communism do still linger in their lingo, where running dogs were always a favourite.
Mao still lives for some of these loonies corrupting our Parliament.
Elizabeth (Lizzie) B.
20 Mar 13 at 5:19 pm
Renegade pair of companion animals escape their kidnappers and attempt to survive on the means streets of a town to the west of Melbourne…
Rabz
20 Mar 13 at 5:22 pm
Pravda and ShakeMyHead.com have become parodies of themselves. All day at their websites, the leadership crisis and the media crackdown have been relatively minor “downpage” stories. Even though CEO Greg Hywood says the media jihad is the “nuclear option”, his editors have made it a headline reserved for stories of little consequence because the FXJ reasdership of Green zombies and public servants regard it as the “final solution” to the evil Murdoch’s persecution — read: critical examination — of the left’s dying government. Almost simultaneously, FXJ has changed the Age and SMH print formats with an underwhelming response and has begun putting these products behind paywalls so that all but the most casual users will be charged. In the next six months, evidence that these twin strategies are succeeding or failing will be withheld by the company for as long as possible, so it will be mainly anecdotal through the only outside examiners, the Australian media section and Mumbrella.com.au. Since the currency it trades in is credibility, it doesn’t bode well when its coverage omissions are making it a laughing stock. You’re defying gravity if you think you can pitch a mass media product to people who don’t live and work in the real economy.
Incidentally, for journalists, stories about dogs, along with weather stories, are your go-to beat-ups on slow news days. LOL. The dog story leading Pravda on a day of high drama in Canberra is quite comical.
Tom
20 Mar 13 at 5:23 pm
Reports of people being caught in the act should read “people have been charged” – unless it’s just urban rumour.
Harold
20 Mar 13 at 5:24 pm
Not true Rabz. I saw a Chihuahua kill a German Shepherd once……..
The Shepherd choked on the Chihuahua
Splatacrobat
20 Mar 13 at 5:25 pm
The little dogs taste nice.
Steve of Glasshouse
20 Mar 13 at 5:27 pm
the theft of dogs and cats is still theft. people pay thousands in vet bills to treat sick cats and dods so they are valuable and regarded as members of the family.
Jim Rose
20 Mar 13 at 5:47 pm
Indeed.
Philippa Martyr
20 Mar 13 at 5:48 pm
Snappy Handbag
Pickles
20 Mar 13 at 5:52 pm
Sorry to say, but if I caught some one attempting to steal my Scottie from my yard for this purpose I wouldn’t have any moral qualms in breaking his arms or legs. And so far as the two issues above are concerned I would put it ahead of the leadership speculation.
dover_beach
20 Mar 13 at 5:53 pm
“There’s nothing horrifying about Chihuahuas”
Actually Rabz they are the most mindlessly aggressive dog on the planet. They were bred into the “Pit Bull” fighting dog bloodlines to make Pit Bulls more aggressive…
But sure, the ability of a regular chihuahua to cause injury above your ankle is severely limited
ugh
20 Mar 13 at 5:55 pm
I’ve found your first suspect Sgt Gibson.
Evidence:
Must have been a Shih Tzu
Splatacrobat
20 Mar 13 at 6:12 pm
Growing up, a friend of mine ended up with a dog that was literally the size of a rat. He had a big party, someone stepped on it and killed the ugly little thing by mistake. The party just kept on going. Can’t recall if I scored that night.
JC
20 Mar 13 at 6:15 pm
I always thought your dog was a beagle. Don’t know why…
Gab
20 Mar 13 at 6:15 pm
Hilarious story, JC. lol
Gab
20 Mar 13 at 6:16 pm
Sounds like a ruff night for the dog, eh JC?
Brian of Moorabbin
20 Mar 13 at 6:20 pm
Breaking news at The Phage: Global milk prices to rise.
Infidel Tiger
20 Mar 13 at 6:58 pm
Well a feature of online news is that the owners have a very good idea of what people read and what they don’t. And in general they don’t read political stories, but they will read stories about dogs being stolen.
Look at news.com.au – at the moment they’re running as their lead:
“Seven stops Mel B’s move to Nine”
and earlier in the day it was running an exclusive:
“Job ad: Ugly people need not apply”
…. for a receptionist job in Jakarta!
90% of online news sites is just click bait these days
Chris
20 Mar 13 at 7:00 pm
Still headlining in the NT News.
Gab
20 Mar 13 at 7:02 pm
That’s an astute observation, Chris, except for one thing.
The two biggest click bait topics of the day today were ignored by Fairfax to protect the government. FXJ is destroying its credibility daily by sucking up to Green zombies and the public service. There is no commercial future in the demographic FXJ is pursuing, i.e. the political spectrum’s far left fruitcakes.
Tom
20 Mar 13 at 7:21 pm
Give us a break. Fairfax has lead with a slew of stories about the leadership and the media reform bills everyday this week.
Slim
20 Mar 13 at 7:26 pm
Actually, it’s funny you should say that – my best mate and his wife and two little children had a much beloved Pug (who I also thought was quite a cool dogue).
They’d had him for years and decided to get a check up as his dog year count was getting quite high. Anyway the vet did some remedial work, slugged them about a $1,000 and declared the Pug to be in extremely robust health.
Lo and behold, the poor li’l promptly keeled over within days.
The children were distraught and could only be consoled with the purchase of new kitten, with my mate declaring dogs, as cute as they are, were just too much of a pain in the arse.
Rabz
20 Mar 13 at 7:26 pm
aaarrgghh!
Lo and behold, the poor li’l Pug promptly keeled over within days…
Rabz
20 Mar 13 at 7:27 pm
I love the NT news. Always delivers.
Must have been a Shih Tzu
Wouldn’t they taste like chicken?
Entropy
20 Mar 13 at 7:29 pm
If you’ve already double-tapped the low life bastard, why bother breaking the arms and legs of a corpse?
boy on a bike
20 Mar 13 at 7:30 pm
Shit, don’t tell Conroy…
He’ll be blubbering about it for months.
Brian of Moorabbin
20 Mar 13 at 7:30 pm
Dear oh dear, Gab does indeed hold a grudge. That smart arse comment I made over a month back has been repaid with usurious interest.
dover_beach
20 Mar 13 at 7:38 pm
Gotta love the double tap!
Splatacrobat
20 Mar 13 at 7:39 pm
Is that you, Snoopy?
Gab
20 Mar 13 at 7:40 pm
Slim, the two biggest click bait topics of the day today were ignored by Fairfax to protect the government. But I repeat myself.
Tom
20 Mar 13 at 7:49 pm
Seeing we’re deeply immersed in the green-love festing Age, I’m bemused that Fairfax, 33% owner of the iconic date, has forgotten to mention Earth Hour is this Saturday. I can find only one article on the SMH in the last month and it criticises Earth Hour.
Even today when you’d think they’d want some filler so they can avoid the stories-which-must-not-be-told there’s not a sausage.
Does this mean they are bored with their own creation or just the read the tea-leaves of the CAGW scam’s demise?
Bruce
20 Mar 13 at 7:52 pm
Most popular stories at news.com.au:
Most popular stories at smh:
Its not like there aren’t plenty of political or economic oriented stories at both news sites (there are multiple leadership stories at both). But its pretty clear that’s not what people want to read about online.
I reckon if you look at the most popular ones over a week you’d find they’re primarily about: sex, crime or “wierd”. Bonus points for the writer if they can find a story about all three at once.
Sadly some news websites have even started adding links to external sites (presumably who pay them) that look like news article links but are really just sensationalised articles designed to attract visitors to get ad impressions for the site.
Chris
20 Mar 13 at 8:36 pm
Earlier today the number 2 story on the Age website was a report that the defamation case of Barby Ramjan vs Michael Kroger might be delayed until …. shock, horror …… after the election.
Why is that in any way newsworthy?
The case is about Kroger calling Barby “nuts” and has nothing to do with Barby’s “recovered memories” of Abbott’s wall punching.
So in the midst of Conroy and TLS trying to neuter press freedoms, the Age website thinks a peripheral defamation try-on is newsworthy.
Leigh Lowe
20 Mar 13 at 8:50 pm
If you are going to quote the NT News, at least give them credit for keeping up with the times with a pet-related headline:
Catnappers shaved my pussy
Jezery
21 Mar 13 at 11:05 am
geez there are a few dogs around here that i wouldn’t mind somebody kidnapping or eating. Alternatively a 1080 drop over Toowoomba would be nice.
Eyrie
21 Mar 13 at 1:41 pm