ANGUS ANIMAL welfare experts have been baffled after nine apparently healthy pedigree dogs were abandoned in a remote part of the county.

The mystery began last Friday when the animals—four Scottish Terriers and five Cocker Spaniels—were found by a local farmer at the Backwater reservoir in Glenisla, several miles from Kirriemuir in the Angus glens.

The dogs were taken into the care of Angus Council’s environmental and consumer protection department and are now being kennelled locally.

Officials said the animals have not been poorly treated and their behaviour suggests they are likely to have been kept in kennels, possibly a dog-breeding establishment.

Puzzled by how such a large number of dogs came to be callously dumped in the car park of a dead-end glen road, officers’ early hopes of a breakthrough in the case also seem to have fizzled out.

Early investigations traced at least four of the dogs as having a connection with a company based in Doncaster, but it is understood to have ceased trading in 2005.

The authority yesterday said it had linked the four dogs to a firm called Puppy Paradise but that outfit no longer exists.

A spokesperson for the council’s environmental and consumer protection division said, “The dogs are being cared for by Angus Council and are in good health.

“They are pedigree dogs, not at all the usual stray or abandoned animals the dog warden service often has to deal with.

“We are concerned that the dogs may have been removed from their owner, and would like to hear from anyone who is missing this group of dogs.”

The authority is also working to trace who was responsible dumping the dogs.

”We would like to hear from any member of the public who can help us trace the person who abandoned these animals probably sometime on the evening of Thursday 3 May,” the spokesperson said.

Anyone wishing to contact the council with information is asked to contact the ACCESS- Line on 08452 777 778.