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The RSPCA has honoured a social media site dubbed 'Facebark' for its success in helping to reunite pet owners with their lost animals.

The charity awarded the site's creators with a Community Animal Welfare Footprints Innovator Award for delivering outstanding results in reuniting owners with lost or stolen pets.

Set up by Middlesbrough Council, the site currently posts photographs of pets and strays that have been found in the area in order to restore lost pets to their rightful owner.

The site also encourages owners to micro-chip their pets. The page now has more than 1,400 followers with around 20,000 hits every month, and has helped to reunite and rehouse dozens of dogs.

An RSPCA spokesperson said: 'The page aims to reunite owners with their stray dogs and find potential new owners for the many, many unwanted strays coming in to the care of the dog warden service.

'The judges praised the entry as an example of a simple, but extremely effective and well-managed idea. We hope it will go on to be a great success, directly improving the welfare of the dogs involved."

The resource is currently the first of its kind in the UK, and has been greatly welcomed by pet owners and pet insurance policyholders who have experienced or are vigilant about the prospect of pet theft.

Data released by the Kennel Club earlier confirmed that pet theft is on the increase, with more career criminals thought to be kidnapping pets in order to claim a ransom or reward fee in exchange for the safe return of a much-loved animal.

Experts have attributed the rise in 'dog-napping' to the difficult financial climate, which has left criminals with fewer assets to steal.

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