A MAN who has been looking for his missing dog, since December has spoken of receiving prank calls saying his dog was dead and having his missing posters ripped down and posted back through his letterbox.
Valerio Goia, originally from Italy but living in Thirsk, has been looking for his dog Pastis, who he says is "the closest thing to a child" he will ever have, since he went missing on December 8 last year.
However, after putting missing posters up around the town, he later found them ripped down and posted back through his letter box accompanied by an anonymous letter claiming that the posters were “litter.”
The letter continues to say that Pastis likelihood of not coming home “is extremely limited” and that the dog was likely dead.
According to the letter, the anonymous person has been binning the missing posters for two weeks and has claimed that they are “pointless.”
Mr Goia has also received a number of prank calls to his number from people laughing and claiming the dog had “fallen in the river” was “dead in the river” and was “floating in the river.”
Mr Goia, a member of the Thirsk rotary club, which has a target of “keeping Thirsk clean”, said the “nasty” behaviour would not spoil his view of the UK and the North East.
Speaking on the disappearance of his dog he said it was the “first time in his life” that he got out.
He said: “Unfortunately the 8th of December Pastis made a hole in our fence, that’s the first time that’s happened and considering that we have a double fence, plus wire and another external fence, so we don’t know what’s happened.
“Unfortunately that’s the first time in his life that he got out and since then we have been searching for him, 99 per cent of people have been helpful and nice.
“Some stupid people or one, we don’t know how many, have started taking down all our posters and we received that letter the other day stating that the dog is dead and doesn’t want to come back.
“They think it’s littering and sent me all the posters back in this envelope.
“We’re sticking back up all our posters anyway.
He added: “On the littering front, first of all I would not be so stupid as to litter the countryside putting my phone number and home address.
“And secondly I’m part of the rotary club in Thirsk and one of our first targets is to keep clean Thirsk and the countryside.
“So God knows who it is, just someone nasty person trying to mess up things I suppose.
Mr Goia said pastis had been spotted multiple times around Thirsk although he cannot be 100 per cent sure it was him.
He said: “He’s been spotted in Thirsk town in Skipton but we’re not 100 per cent sure it’s him so we’re still waiting to have something more concrete.”
The posters were again ripped down on Saturday after they had been put up again by Valerio.
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