Rs 600,000 award for missing dog

A Toronto man has offered an award of $15,000 for anyone returning his dog which went missing on February 16. It is one of the biggest awards offered by an owner for a lost pet.

Bert Clark said his dog - named Huckleberry - went missing outside a bakery where it was left tied up by its caretaker. When the caretaker came out of the bakery, the chocolate-coloured Labrador was missing.

Clark filed a report with the police and the Humane Society about the missing 85-pound pet.

The man said that Huckleberry was more than a pet for him. "The dog was my bosom pal."

Overwhelmed by emotion, Clark refused to talk to IANS. "I am not interested in talking," he said.

But he told the Toronto Star earlier: "There isn't any sum of money that I would associate with him. Life isn't about money - it's about the connection you make with other souls. Huckleberry was like my soul mate."

Clark has plastered the area where the dog went missing with posters, pleading for the safe return of his pet.

"I'm only interested in his safe return. I just want this to end. He's playful. He had a sense of humour, he loved kids ... he was the perfect dog. I'd be devastated if anything were to happen to him," he was quoted as saying.

With Toronto freezing under sub-zero temperatures, no one knows how long the dog will survive in the harsh winter unless someone picks it up.

Pets often go missing in Canada, which has a huge population of dogs and cats. Many are found by their owners while others end up in shelters run by the Society for Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (SPCA).

The longest missing case is that of a cat which was returned to its owner after seven years.