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Hunting Dogs Stolen In Columbia County

GREENWOOD TOWNSHIP — The hunt is on for a pair of hounds that somebody snatched from a front yard in Columbia County. The thief may have believed she was ...

GREENWOOD TOWNSHIP -- The hunt is on for a pair of hounds that somebody snatched from a front yard in Columbia County.

The thief may have believed she was doing the dogs a favor.

The owner of the dogs said her husband is heartbroken after their hunting hounds, Missy and Susie, were stolen Friday morning.

Two dog houses now sit empty in the front yard of 624 Rohrsburg Road near Orangeville after someone snatched 15-year-old Missy and 8-year-old Susie.

"Oh, that is not good. Why would somebody steal a dog?" asked neighbor Joseph Cirafici.

Tracey Travelpiece and her husband Darrell own the pair of mixed breed hounds, trained to hunt coyote.

"My husband called me at work and asked if any of his buddies had taken the dogs hunting, and I said no. He says 'their collars and everything lay here and the dogs are gone,'" Tracey said.

A neighbor told state police Friday around 10:30 a.m. a woman in a dark sedan pulled up to the house, put the dogs in her car and took off.

"The dogs are very friendly. They are not the type to go after you, so they would probably seem trustworthy to anyone who would come up and pet them, but why someone would come on our property and take them?"

While trained hunting dogs can be valuable, Travelpiece says her neighbor told her the dog snatcher actually said what she was going to do and why.

"She thought they looked a little thin, and she said she was new to the area and had dogs like this before and did she think they would mind if they took them," Travelpiece said. "My neighbor said the next thing she knew, the dogs were gone."

Travelpiece says the animals may have looked skinny because they recently started eating a new brand of dog food. She adds that even if someone believed the dogs were in danger, just taking them is against the law.

"I would just ask her to please return our dogs. We don't (abuse) them, or anything and we would like to have them back."

Travelpiece says she hopes whoever has the dogs is at least taking good care of them.

If you have any information, state police in Bloomsburg want to hear from you.

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