Police hunt woman who re-homed rescue dog Sid before selling him on Gumtree for £900 the same day

The 27-year-old woman attended Mill House Animal Sanctuary in Sheffield on January 30, looking to re-home a dog.

Staff at the sanctuary allowed "Sid", a two-year-old male Staffordshire Bull Terrier to be re-homed into her care.

Later the same day, an advertisement believed to be Sid was seen on online selling site Gumtree.

The advert reads: "This is so hard, due to no fault of his own I am having to re-home my beautiful boy. He is such a loving, sweet, funny boy and is absolutely amazing with children and other dogs. Fully house-trained, can be left on his own. No breeders, no time wasters. Only the best for my boy."

Police believe the woman sold Sid after he was released into her care.

The woman later failed to attend the sanctuary for her follow-up appointment and police enquiries have also revealed that the contact details she gave were false.

Officers now want to speak to the person who bought Sid in good faith to help them with their investigation.

A Gumtree spokesman confirmed the advert for Sid was immediately removed when the company was contacted by Mill House Animal Sanctuary.

He said: “We take animal welfare very seriously at Gumtree and immediately removed the advert when Mill House Animal Sanctuary reported Sid’s case to us.

"We work closely with law enforcement and animal welfare organisations to investigate and block offending users from our platform. We encourage prospective pet owners to be vigilant, ask lots of questions about an animal’s background and to double-check the paperwork before they decide to buy a new dog. We would also encourage any users who see an advert which is misleading, suspicious or which otherwise raises concerns about animal welfare, to let us know via the “report” button on the advert so that we can take the appropriate action."

Anyone with information can call South Yorkshire Police on 101 quoting incident number 585 of January 30, 2021.