Australia's Designer Dog Boom Fuels Pet Theft Epidemic
A Sydney-based pet detective has revealed that Australia's booming market for high-demand dog breeds, combined with increasingly messy post-breakup custody disputes, is driving a significant surge in stolen pets and complex investigations across the nation.
From Personal Panic to Professional Mission
Anne-Marie Curry, founder of Arthur & Co. Pet Detectives, told 7NEWS.com.au she was drawn into this unique profession after experiencing the sheer panic of a missing pet herself many years ago. "Having had my own experience with a missing pet, I know all too well that when a pet goes missing, owners feel immediate distress," Curry explained. "But unlike with a missing child, police and State Emergency Services do not have the remit or resources to search for missing pets, leaving owners feeling completely overwhelmed and worried about what to do to find their missing or stolen furry family member."
Lucrative Market Creates Underground Trade
Curry said while many missing pet cases result from unfortunate accidents like gates left open or escapes during pet sitting, there's a growing number of intentional thefts. "High-demand breeds and the profitability of puppy farming have made some dogs easy targets for a quick buck," she revealed. "Informal online sales channels and Australia's fractured, fragmented microchip database system makes it very easy for stolen dogs to be moved quickly, often interstate. Unsuspecting buyers can inadvertently purchase a stolen dog, or even the offspring of stolen dogs."
Relationship Breakdowns Turn Into Pet Custody Battles
The rise in relationship breakdowns involving pets has added another complex layer to the problem. Curry explained that recent changes to Australian family law have reshaped how courts treat companion animals, but not always in ways couples expect. "From June 2025, reforms in Australian family law changed how companion animals are treated in property settlements arising from divorce or de facto relationship breakdowns," she said. "This is important because under this reform, pets are no longer treated as generic furniture. Instead, they are recognised as companion animals, which acknowledges their role in the family unit. But only one person can be awarded 'custody' or legal ownership of the animal."
Curry continued: "Courts cannot order shared custody arrangements, and this leads to what we often see: informal shared custody arrangements going catastrophically wrong. All it takes is for one party to decide not to return the animal, and the legal owner is then left with having to hire a pet detective or navigate an expensive, time-consuming court process. Police will often deem these cases a 'civil matter' and rarely get involved."
High-Profile Clients and Challenging Searches
Curry's team works across every Australian state and territory, often for well-known Australians. "We often have very high-profile clients, such as famous Australian sportspeople, billionaires, politicians, TV personalities, barristers, and even police officers who have hired us to find their own missing or stolen pets," Curry disclosed.
Sydney's diverse geography presents particular challenges. "Locations like Sydney have busy roads, dense bush reserves, rail corridors... and a frightened, missing dog could end up anywhere or be picked up by anyone," she explained. "The methods we use depend on individual circumstances, but common strategies include breed behaviour profiling, geo-targeted community alerts across multiple platforms, technology deployment, and sighting verification skills."
Variable Recovery Times and Costs
Recovery efforts can vary dramatically in duration and expense. "Every case is different. Some pets are located within hours, others take weeks or months," Curry said. "Costs vary depending on what we are hired to do. A full-scale search with onsite fieldwork, enquiries, and high-tech equipment is more expensive. We are also known as the go-to people across Australia for complex cases, some of which are undercover and covert, and understandably the fees are commensurate with the level of skill and experience required."
Emotional Toll and Public Scrutiny
Curry emphasized that being a pet detective is not for the faint-hearted, particularly as a female in the field. "The amount of personal criticism I get online, often from people who have never met me nor even spoken with me, is phenomenal," she revealed. "For example, comments about my appearance and personality rather than my methods and consistent success rate. Harassment and abuse when outcomes are delayed, even when those delays are due to factors out of our control."
She added: "I have even been trolled for having Jewish clients with missing dogs. We are humans, not miracle workers. Pets don't vanish off the face of the Earth because they've been taken by an alien spacecraft. Missing and stolen animals end up somewhere, and it's the cases that remain unsolved due to lies, crime, evidence tampering, and deception that keep me up at night."
