Dog thefts in eighteenth-century Wrocław

Abstract

Dog thefts in eighteenth-century Wrocław The spread of fashion for pet dogs in the eighteenth century led to a considerable expansion of the canine population, especially in large cities. The animals, no longer tied to buildings and constantly present in the urban space, got much more easily lost and stolen. The increase in the number of animals made them an attractive target for local criminals. Dognapping is undoubtedly a phenomenon with a lasting presence in modern metropolises, but hitherto practically unexplored. The preliminary research is based on an analysis of dog theft announcements published in the Silesian press. The author uses advertisements from two main Silesian papers publishing advertisements: Wöchentliche Fragnachrichten and Schlesische Privilegirte Zeitung, from 1742–1800. The earliest known dog theft announcements in Silesia come from the second half of the 1740s. The author has managed to distinguish three different types of appropriation: deliberately planned theft from a household, catching someone’s dog during a walk, keeping a stray animal. The Silesian sources mention only men as the thieves, but owing to the specificity of the sources, the data are not entirely reliable. The author of the article also analyses methods of securing dogs against theft. They included dog collars with the owner’s initials. The common custom of attaching padlocks to collars, which hampered their quick removal, may have potentially led to the thief being caught in the act. Yet the padlocks were not problematic enough as an obstacle to provide lasting protection for the owner. A more durable method of marking the animals was to place an ownership mark on their bodies. In the case of dogs, them marks were cut. The available data clearly indicate that only hunting dogs had the owners’ marks cut. Thanks to highly visible letters the animals could be recognised from a great distance, which was important during hunts, when dogs of various owners got mixed up. This type of marking was also useful as a theft preventing measure, because until the hair grew back it was easy to identify the dog. No advertisement published in the Wrocław press mentions the owner’s initials being branded on the dog’s body, although we know that such a practice did occur in European kennels.