MY SEARCH FOR BEAU
This is a photo of Beau when he was young, approximately 12 months old. You might notice his heart-shaped nose and the sweetness in his face.
Beau came to me at a time when I was seriously ill and he helped me recover from my illness. Beau came to me because of the kindness and genuine concern of my doctor, who is a truly wonderful woman. Beau loved me from the moment he looked at me. Beau 'knew' so much about me, even though he was 'only a 4 months old puppy'.
Beau gave me his love, his respect, his trust and his loyalty without expecting anything from me in return.
More than 6 years have now passed since I have seen my dog "Beau".
If Beau had died from natural causes, this would have devastated me, but I would have known where Beau was and that he was not being hurt by a human. Nothing will ever make right what has happened to Beau. Some semblance of justice will prevail when I find Beau alive. He will then be safe and no human will ever be able to harm him again.
Humans who criticise me for continuing to search for Beau are criticising me for loving my dog so much. Humans do not have a monopoly on love. In fact in our society today many humans have lost the ability to love. They are too self-focussed on gaining material possessions for themselves and abusing anyone who is not like them.
Beau was taken away from me because of the greed, dishonesty, cruelty and inhumanity of human beings.
The enormous benefits dogs give us are recognised. However, this is completely cast aside if the dog is stolen, or the dog gets lost and then is stolen.
Stolen dogs (all stolen animals) are the forgotten group in our society in Australia. They do not have a voice.
When I came home from work on 1 July 2003 and Beau was gone, I knew something terrible had happened to him. I knew Beau would never leave his home willingly. I could not sit back and do nothing. I could not allow a criminal to trespass into our home, traumatise my family and myself, and steal and destroy Beau, who is one of my dearest friends in my life.
It did not take me long to realise that there was no support system in place in Australia to help me find Beau. I thought very seriously about what to do and I decided that if I did not spend a lot of money on advertising to try to reach as many people as I could, I had no chance of ever seeing Beau again. I re-financed my mortgage so I had money available for a Large Reward and for advertising, etc.
I borrow money to keep my motor vehicle on the road. Beau is worth much more to me than my motor vehicle.
Beau did not choose to get stolen.
From memory, I think I borrowed another $45,000 and I was prepared to offer the majority of this as a Reward for the safe return of my beloved Beau. Obviously I had to use some of this money for advertising, flyers, petrol, etc.
I knew TIME was critical.
I was constantly talked out of stating a Reward amount by organisations involved in locating 'missing' dogs and classified advertising staff for a number of reasons, one of which was that I would attract hoax callers. This happened anyway and I was in fact plagued by hoax callers because of the extent of my advertising.
This is the first advertisement I placed for Beau on 2 July 2003, the day after Beau was stolen.
You will note I have stated "HUGE REWARD for return. No questions asked".
You would think people would realise by "HUGE", I meant I would pay a great deal, but "HUGE" means different things to different people.
I believe "$40,000" would have made a greater impact than "HUGE", maybe not.
I was desperate to find Beau as quickly as I possibly could. If I were wealthy I would have offered a $1 MILLION Reward for the safe return of Beau.
I was panic-stricken. Beau is so soft natured, so vulnerable; he loved me so much; he loved his family and his home so much. Beau would have coped very badly. He would have been so frightened, so confused. Where was his mum ??? His mum always protected him and kept him safe.
I was so worried whoever had Beau might hurt him.
I made the best decisions I could at the time.
I literally flooded the Gold Coast and surrounding areas with advertising as well as displaying Beau's flyers and hammering up Beau's posters everywhere I went. I travelled day and night searching for Beau and spreading the word about the plight of Beau. One day I counted the number of kilometres I had travelled, and it was 832.
Within approximately 6 weeks after Beau was stolen, without any sightings of Beau despite all my advertising and the help of a local radio station and a Gold Coast City Council newsletter, I believed Beau had been taken away from the local area. So, I started advertising Australia wide.
It takes a great deal of time and money to search Australia wide for a 'missing' dog.
Humans assume I am wealthy. Humans assume a lot of things about other humans they do not know, and their assumptions are usually wrong. This is human nature.
Dogs (all animals) do not assume anything.
I believed it was very likely that Beau would be taken to a veterinary practice at some point in time so I made the effort to write to every veterinary practice in Australia. It was a huge task and took me 12 months to complete and cost me thousands of dollars in postage and colour flyers.
Despite my desperate and genuine pleas for help, I received a 10% response from the veterinary practices.
I was devastated.
Beau is microchipped; he is a rare purebred dog and a very distinctive looking dog i.e. an English Setter; he is a legally stolen dog; and I am and will always remain the legal owner of Beau. I am a responsible dog owner and a responsible member of the community.
I received the same response i.e. 10%, from council dog pounds, RSPCA dog shelters and private dog rescue organisations.
I did not expect this apathy.
Dealing with the trauma of what had happened to Beau was difficult enough. I pleaded with these organisations to keep in touch with me. I believed a brief response to my letters and emails was not a lot for me to expect. More importantly, I believed these organisations should not have thrown out Beau's information including his microchip number and his Police crime report number.
I was ignored. Beau, who is an innocent, defenceless dog, was ignored.
"The worst sin toward our fellow creatures is not to hate them, but to be indifferent to them. That is the essence of inhumanity." ~ George Bernard Shaw.
Unfortunately more than 6 years later, despite spending tens and tens of thousands of dollars, possibly even more than I was prepared to offer as a Reward in the beginning; distributing hundreds of thousands of flyers throughout Australia; hammering up thousands of laminated posters; and travelling tens of thousands of kilometres day and night, I have still not found Beau.
I could not begin to tell you what I have done to try to find Beau.
I will list a few things I have done.
I have advertised in major metropolitan and rural newspapers, in regional newspapers and in Canine Control Council Dog magazines throughout Australia continuously since 1 July 2003.
I have contacted every council dog pound, RSPCA dog shelter, veterinary practice and the majority of private dog rescue organisations in every State of Australia continuously since 1 July 2003.
Those council pounds, RSPCA dog shelters, veterinary practices, and private dog rescue organisations for which I have been able to locate an email address, I have emailed twice a year continuously since Beau was stolen on 1 July 2003.
I have contacted breeders, breed clubs, dog trainers, dog training clubs, dog groomers, pet shops .. every type of dog business .. Australia wide.
I have contacted every primary and secondary school in Queensland and the majority in New South Wales; every water carter in Queensland and New South Wales; every Pet Friendly accommodation owner in Australia.
I designed a 16 page website and spent hours on the internet each day trying to increase my website visitors, listing Beau on pet internet sites, and emailing organisations throughout Australia to try to spread the word about Beau.
At the start of 2007, I was at my wits end what to do next. Then a lady who had seen Beau's posters at Redland Bay in Brisbane phoned me. Her dog was stolen in 2006 and she was one of the fortunate ones because her dog was returned after she offered a Reward amount in advertising. The Police recommended she do this.
Because this was a Police recommendation, I decided to advertise a Reward amount in a major metropolitan and a major rural newspaper in every State of Australia.
I offered a $10,000 Reward for the safe return of Beau.
I hoped this large Reward would prompt more people to help me find Beau.
I wish I could have offered more. This was the most I could borrow after all the money I had spent on my search for Beau since 1 July 2003.
To give you an idea of advertising costs, this is an advertisement I placed in the Dogs Classified section of Queensland Country Life on 5 April 2007. The cost was $660. It would have been even more expensive if I had placed the advertisement in the general section of the newspaper.
Unfortunately offering the $10,000 Reward brought me no news of Beau and I was plagued by nuisance and obscene phone calls and emails. Again, I received an 'emotional battering'.
I had to withdraw the $10,000 Reward on 16 February 2008 because I ended up spending this money on my search for Beau and my borrowing ability had run out.
At least I tried.
The media attention has not arisen because I have connections with the media. I have worked very hard and I have spent an extraordinary amount of time and borrowed a great deal of money to try to find Beau. My privacy is one of the many things I have willingly sacrificed for Beau.
I will keep going. I will never stop searching for my Beau. I will keep doing everything I possibly can to find Beau despite my poor financial situation.
BEAU SUPPORTERS
Many wonderful people have joined me in my search for Beau and some of these people do not even own a dog. The kindness they have shown me is extraordinary. These people are young and old, male and female, come from all walks of life, and live all around the world. What we have in common is our sense of humanity and our love and respect for all life. I call these wonderful people my ‘Beau supporters’.
Many 'Beau supporters' have distributed flyers and hammered up posters for me, listed Beau on their personal websites, visited their local veterinary practices and dog pounds, displayed Beau's flyer on their car windows, etc.
This photo shows Holly, Brandy and Millie. Their mum's name is Marion. Marion has been helping me find Beau and supporting me for more than 6 years now.
Even though Marion has health problems, she has 'gone the extra mile ( thousands)' for Beau and myself.
It was because of Marion that Daniel Fallon from The Sydney Morning Herald featured my website in their newspaper.
Even during her holidays away from Sydney, Marion distributes Beau's flyers and hammers up Beau's posters wherever she goes. Her support and faith in finding Beau has never wavered.
Marion typifies a 'Beau supporter'. Marion represents the best in human nature. This is not because Marion is a dog owner. This is because of the person she is.
My 'Beau supporters' matter to me. They represent all that is good and kind in this world.
My 'Beau supporters' are trying to do something in their own small way to help the plight of animals in this world, to save the natural environment, and to help the plight of humans in this world.
I believe if you are incapable of respecting animals and the natural environment in which you live, you are incapable of respecting other human beings.
I will continue to hope that Beau will find his way to a decent human being who will do the right thing and help him come back home to his family and to me.
If I knew Beau was safe and he was happy, I would be able to 'let go'. But I do not know this, and until I know this, I have to keep going for Beau because he deserves this from me at the very least.
"The bond with a dog is as lasting as the ties of this Earth can ever be." ~ Konrad Lorenz.
