ELK GROVE, California – Business is booming for Jaymar Del Rosario, whose puppies can sell for tens of thousands of dollars. When this breeder leaves his house to meet a client, he never leaves without the dog’s papers, a bag of kibble and… his Glock 26. “If I don’t know the neighborhood, or I don’t know the person, I always take my gun,” he says, pointing to Cashew, a 6-month-old puppy of a new variety of long-haired French bulldog that can sell for over $30,000.
With their perky ears, playful eyes that always look like they’re crying out for petting, and the way they waddle like crocodiles on their short legs, bulldogs are the latest craze for influencers, pop stars, and professional athletes. . And now the favorite dogs of Americans, after the Labradors.
What is worth to them to be the object of all the covetousnesses. In recent years, bulldog thefts have spiked in Miami, New York, Chicago, Houston, and — most importantly, apparently — California. Often dogs are snatched from their owners at gunpoint. The kidnapping that has caused the most ink to flow is undoubtedly that of Lady Gaga’s two dogs, Koji and Gustav, stolen in the middle of the street in Los Angeles. The man walking them was punched, strangled and even shot.
Between $4,000 and $6,000 a puppy
The price of bulldogs is already very dissuasive – between 4,000 and 6,000 dollars for a puppy, and the most fashionable varieties are snapped up at the price of gold. But the mental load is also very heavy: the fear of seeing a thief burst into your garden to kidnap your dog or the increased vigilance that you have to show when you walk it after reading stories of kidnappings.
Unfortunately for owners, bulldogs suffer from two very American traits: a passion for dogs and the ubiquity of guns.
Thus, on a freezing January evening, in the Adams Point district of Oakland, California, Rita Warda was walking Dezzie, her 7-year-old bulldog. An SUV pulled up next to them and two men got out. “They had a gun and said to me: ‘Give us your dog’”, she says.
Three days later, a lady called to say she had found the bulldog wandering near a high school. Rita Warda is now taking self-defense classes and advises dog owners to have tear gas on them or
The rest is reserved for subscribers…
- Access all subscribed content
- Support independent writing
- Receive the Mail Alarm Clock every morning
Source of the article
The New York Times (New York)With 1,600 journalists, 35 overseas bureaus, 130 Pulitzer Prize winners and some 5 million total subscribers, The New York Times is by far the leading daily newspaper in the country, in which one can read “all the news that’s fit to print” (“all information worthy of publication”).
It is the reference newspaper of the United States, insofar as the televisions consider that a subject deserves national coverage only if The New York Times Trafficking. Its Sunday edition (1.1 million copies) is distributed across the country – including The New York Times Book Review, an authoritative book supplement, and the unequaled New York Times Magazine. The Ochs-Sulzberger family, which in 1896 took control of this newspaper created in 1851, is still at the head of the centre-left daily.
As for the web edition, which boasts more than 3.7 million subscribers in October 2019, it offers everything you would expect from an online service, plus dozens of specific sections. The archives bring together articles published since 1851, which can be consulted online from 1981.
Read more
Nos services