Pet owners say multiple dogs have gone missing in local community

SELMER, Tenn. — Pet owners in one community are coming together after they say multiple dogs have gone missing from their homes.

For Bonda Cummings, her Yorkie, Cooper, is more than just a pet.

“He’s like my baby. He’s got to be found,” she said. “I saved his life and, in turn, he saved mine.”

Cummings says Cooper is one of several small purebred dogs in the area that have mysteriously vanished.

“Right now there’s no closure,” she said. “I don’t know if he’s dead, I don’t know he’s been fed, I don’t know if he’s laying on the back of someone’s couch.”

Dog owners in the area say this isn’t anything new.

“He was there one minute, and he was gone the next,” Charles Howley said.

Howley’s Dachshund recently went missing just a few miles up the street.

“I’m becoming more and more aware of these dogs becoming missing in our community. I don’t think that’s very ironic,” Howley said.

Howley says it’s more than just a coincidence.

“I turn on the Facebook and scroll through, and I see another human’s companion missing once again with no explanation,” he said.

Tony Joiner says both of his Pugs went missing within three days of each other. He has a terrifying theory.

“I’m hearing that there are dog fighters in that area that take smaller dogs to train larger dogs, and I can only hope that’s not what happened,” Joiner said.

But Cummings says she won’t lose hope searching for Cooper and an explanation.

“I will find him, and I’m going to find who took him, and they are going to go to jail,” Cummings said.

Cummings says she has filed a report with the Selmer Police Department.

If you have any information about missing dogs, you can call Selmer police at 731-645-7906.