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Gaga, who was in Rome filming a movie when the
dogs were stolen, has not commented personally on the theft.
However, the Los Angeles Police Department confirmed that two
French Bulldogs were stolen at gunpoint from a 30-year-old man
on Sierra Bonita Avenue in Hollywood Wednesday night.
The man, identified in multiple media reports as the singer's
dogwalker, was shot with a semi-automatic handgun and remains in
critical condition, the LAPD said.
A third dog, Miss Asia, escaped and was later recovered.
The incident is the latest of several violent thefts of French
Bulldogs in the United States in recent months.
In January, a woman in San Francisco was attacked by thieves
brandishing a gun who stole her French Bulldog puppy. In
October, a North Carolina breeder was held at gunpoint by
thieves who made off with five puppies.
The smush-nosed dogs, which can sometimes be sold for several
thousand dollars each, have long been a target of thieves
because they are expensive and difficult to breed, said Brandi
Hunter, a spokeswoman for the American Kennel Club. It
recommends owners refrain from posting pictures of their
Frenchies on social media - particularly if the photos include
identifying information about where the owners live.
What is new about the recent thefts is the level of violence
used, said Andy Lopez, vice president of the French Bulldog
Rescue Network, a national organization based in Connecticut.
Lopez said he has installed security cameras around his property
to protect his dogs from thieves as well as predators.
The source close to Lady Gaga said the singer was urging anyone
who has the dogs to contact mailto:kojiandgustavo@gmail.com to
return her pets and claim the reward, no questions asked.
On Thursday, the celebrity gossip site TMZ posted a video that
it said was recorded by a neighbor's security camera and shows
the dogwalker being attacked. In the grainy images, a man
screams "help me" as he appears to struggle with two people who
pull up in a white car, before a gunshot is heard.
(Reporting by Gabriella Borter in New York and Sharon Bernstein
in Sacramento; Editing by Cynthia Osterman, Bill Berkrot and
Daniel Wallis)
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