Desperate search for sick child’s support dog which owners believe has been stolen

Owners of a dog believed to have been stolen desperate to get it back after revealing the devastating effect its loss has had on health of sick girl

THE PARENTS of a sick little girl have taken to social media in a desperate search for her support dog which they believed has been stolen.

For more than two months the family has been searching for the support English Staffy Nitro, who went missing from their Beenleigh home in November.

Samantha Hales said all of her three children have been devastated by the disappearance, but it has hit Mercedes Gallagher particularly hard.

The five year old Mercedes Gallagher uses her support dog Nitro to help her get through treatments for her rare auto-immune disease.

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The five-year-old suffers from a disease called linear morphed scleroderma which requires daily medication and infusions.

“Mercedes is devastated,” Ms Hales said.

“She is constantly crying, her side effects from the medications are hitting her hard again and her cuddle buddy isn’t here to help her.”

The family believes Nitro was stolen because he had never left the boundary line before.

“We’ve had him from eight weeks old,” Ms Hales said.

“He was in an enclosed area and due to extra weight there’s no possible way he can jump out.”

Mercedes Gallagher and her beloved support dog Nitro.

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Mercedes must take methotrexate each day which causes side effects including vomiting, tiredness, stomach cramps and weight loss.

“She needs her best friend back to help her cope the best she can,” Ms Hales said.

The beloved pet went missing in late November when the family was on a shopping trip.

“Half an hour into my shopping trip I got the dreadful call that Nitro is gone, vanished … he was happily running around playing with the mate’s dog then within minutes the other dog was laying down alone,” Ms Hales said.

“I came straight over searching for hours, went to work crying then after my shift in the dark continued looking some more.

Nitro the support dog went missing from his family home in late November and the family are desperate to get him home.

“We’ve walked the bush land, posted posters to street poles, dropped flyers in letter boxes, checked the pounds and vets … there’s just nothing.

“He’s a people’s dog, he loves everyone. Someone must have him and we’d really like him back — he is family.”

The loss of the family’s dog comes after warnings that pets are vanishing from Gold Coast back yards in record numbers in an “unseen crime wave”.

Kirilly Cull, the woman behind the Gold Coast’s largest pet lost and found group, told the Gold Coast Bulletin earlier this month she believed syndicates were behind some of hundreds of stolen animal cases across the city.

Police have told Nitro’s family there is nothing they can do without proof the dog was stolen.

The family have since established a social media page ‘Bring Nitro Home’ in the hopes of getting in touch with whoever stole him.

“We are hoping by using social media whoever has him has a change of heart and returns him or someone that knows of his whereabouts comes forward,” Ms Hales said.