Ex-WA Police senior detective Mick Buckley’s devastating experience behind drive to reunite families with pets

You’ve heard of Ace Ventura, well Perth now has its very own pet detective. Former WA Police senior detective Mick Buckley has been reuniting West Australians with their beloved fur babies for more than four decades. The veteran cop, who was involved in rape, murder and missing persons cases, worked in the force for about 14 years before trading life on the frontline for a career as a private investigator. Mr Buckley said his own family was confronted by the shocking devastation of a pet abduction after his son’s horse, Princess, was stolen from a Bibra Lake paddock in 1984. “My son went there one morning and his horse was gone, we were looking everywhere for the horse,” he told The West Australian. “Princess was stolen, 100 per cent.” Two weeks later, Princess was found tied to a tree with a broken neck. “The horse had dug a hole about two feet deep because obviously she was trying to get away and break the rope,” he said. “But what’s happened is she has broken her neck trying to get away from the tree.” In one instance, Mr Buckley was called to a case in Rockingham after a family reported their beloved puppy, Chops, stolen. “A woman rang me and said their three-year-old was devastated . . . their dog had been stolen and asked if I could help,” he said. Inquiries revealed a family who lived down the street had abducted the young Staffordshire Bull Terrier and hidden him in a property in Midland. “We did a search and found a house in Midland and when we got there, there was a broad iron gate with some mesh that was obviously there to stop the dog from getting out,” he said. “We knocked on the door and said, ‘we’ve come to pick up Chops’ . . . and then we took it back to Rockingham and celebrated.” Mr Buckley said it was extremely difficult to find stolen pets unless he had access to CCTV footage. “Unless you have some film or suspects of people in the area, like neighbours in the area (it’s really hard),” he said. “If someone pinches a dog or a cat it’s always in the backyard of their place, they’re never kept out in the front yard. (People steal pets) to sell them or they see that the opportunity is there, so they take it. “The whole reason the young bloke pinched Chops was because it was running around on the street.” And while Mr Buckley does not charge for his pet detective services, he says it’s not uncommon for families to spend upwards of $10,000 to be reunited with their beloved pooch. “People love their pets and people treat their pets like family, some of them will spend thousands of dollars trying to get their pets back,” he said. “I know one family who paid about $18,000 to $20,000 (to find their pet) and they still haven’t got it back, so it’s very hard.” Just last month Poppy, a young American staffy, was reunited with her her family, almost three weeks after she was stolen in broad daylight from her Shoalwater home.