ON this front page from Tuesday, January 22, 1980, fifteen puppies are said to have been stolen.

The puppies were taken from the Moorland Kennels, on the outskirts of Burnley.

Mr Frank Hancock from Nutshaw Kennels in Manchester Road, Clowbridge, has offered a £100 reward for information leading to the return of the missing pups.

His daughter-in-law, Mrs Hancock said they puppies would be hard to sell because although they were not pedigrees, they did not have certificates.

This meant that they were not registered by the Kennel Club and nobody would be able to breed with them.

Mrs Hancock said she believed whoever stole the pups had bene to the kennels before, possibly the afternoon before.

She said: "Some people came in and had a look round.

"The cabins they went in were the ones the missing puppies were kept.

"They did not give their names , and I don't even know if they were local."

Mrs Hancock said the thieves had been selective taking the prettiest pups from each of the cabins they opened, and in some cases taking just part of the litter.

The theft was only discovered when 16-year-old kennels assistant Kathleen Sarsfield from Burnley went to feed them and noticed.