A North Vancouver dog owner is heartbroken and RCMP are recommending charges after the woman's former boyfriend allegedly dognapped her two French bulldog/pug crosses and spirited them out of the country to Mexico.
Katharine Woods said she's spent the last week on the phone, contacting authorities, and her life has been "on hold" since her ex-boyfriend Brandon Lane Douglas, 47, took off with her dogs Toby and Emma.
Woods said the brother and sister pair often attracted attention in North Vancouver.
"They're awesome sweet little dogs," she said. "They're part of the family."
Woods said she and her former boyfriend Douglas adopted the pug/French bulldog puppies six years ago. When she and Douglas split up three years later, Douglas moved to Mexico, where he's been full-time for the past two years, she said. Woods kept and cared for the dogs.
But recently, while visiting family in North Vancouver, Douglas learned that Woods was planning to move to England. Woods said she was contacted by Douglas's mother, who said her son wanted to "say goodbye" to the dogs for a last time.
"I didn't particularly like the idea," said Woods, but agreed to let Douglas take the dogs out for a walk.
"He was polite.
Everything was cordial," she said. "We had no suspicion of what was to come."
Then last Friday - the
day before she was to leave the country - Woods said Douglas asked if he could have "one final night with the dogs.
"I was so busy packing, I said OK," she said.
It wasn't until she got up the next morning that she received an email from Douglas.
"Please don't hate me for life," it started.
"I was shaking with anger and rage," she said. "I knew he'd done something terrible."
In the email, Douglas told Woods, "This is not an easy decision to make," but that he had decided he "wouldn't forgive myself" if he let the two dogs go to England and was taking them away. He added he planned to go into hiding with the dogs.
"I truly think this is the best for Toby and Emma,"
he concluded, adding he hoped Woods would forgive him one day.
Instead, Woods cancelled her flight and got on the phone with consular officials, border authorities and the police.
So far, officials have confirmed Douglas crossed the border into the United States in a friend's car with the dogs earlier that morning and has since returned to Mexico.
Woods said she suspects her ex has taken the dogs to either the Puerto Vallarta area where he had been living or to Guadalajara, where his girlfriend lives.
Richard De Jong, spokesman for the North Vancouver RC MP, said technically the dogs are considered property.
Officers investigating the case have forwarded a report to Crown
counsel, recommending that Douglas be charged with theft. If a charge is approved, it means a warrant could be put out for Douglas and he could be arrested if he comes back to Canada.
De Jong said it's not unheard of for couples to fight over pets when relationships end, but "it's quite uncommon for a criminal charge to be laid."
He added when someone is crossing borders in a car, usually customs officials "do not question who owns the dogs in the back seat."
So far police have been unable to reach Douglas on his phone, he added.
Meanwhile, Woods said her own plans are "completely on hold" while she tries to find the dogs and get them back.
She said the ordeal has already cost her $900 to cancel her flights and will likely end up costing her thousands more to eventually rebook. Woods said she's hoping locals in the Puerto Vallarta area may have seen the dogs, which she worries will not do well in the heat of a Mexican summer.
"We're trying to reach out to as many people as possible."
