We recently heard the news that a dog was stolen right in front of its walker at Three Mile Bend in Red Deer.

A man had the guts to grab the poor dog, who was only being friendly towards him, and shove him into his silver Honda Civic and take off.

Many of us look at our furry friends as family members. How sick is it that someone would take a helpless animal away from its family?

Not only did this unknown man kidnap the dog, who goes by the name Amigo, the poor thing is probably scared as he doesn’t know this person and he has health issues that he requires medication for. This dog is suffering in more ways than one.

Not to mention, the owner of Amigo is beside herself with worry as she has had him since he was eight weeks old. He is now almost three-years-old.

It’s our job as the media to inform the public on issues and this is definitely an incident that can’t go unnoticed.

What has our society become if we have to be worried about people stealing our pets right in front of our eyes?

You would think it would be safe to go somewhere like the dog park in Red Deer where everyone is there for the same purpose – for the love of their dogs. Someone taking off with your pet is the last thing on your mind.

Not only is this devastating for the owner, but it puts fear into others who use the park. The woman who was looking after Amigo, who was actually the dog owner’s sister, was not being careless in her actions. She turned around for a brief second to load up her two other dogs into the vehicle and in that small amount of time, witnessed the man taking Amigo. It all happened very fast. This man was obviously there for a purpose – to take someone’s dog as it was reported he wasn’t seen with one of his own.

Amigo is described as looking like a Labrador/Newfoundlander cross. He is black in colour with two white patches under his chin and one on his chest.

We can only hope that the coverage of this incident will prompt whoever took Amigo to give him back to his owner. As we understand Amigo was not chipped or didn’t have any tattoos and can only be recognized from the tag on his collar.

The community also needs to be on the lookout for Amigo. He needs to be reunited with his owner.

This man should also be criminally charged and prosecuted accordingly. This is not an incident that should be taken lightly.