An MP has called on the government to make pet theft a crime after a dog was stolen from Wherwell.

Cleo, a blue roan cocker spaniel, went missing on September 16. After an extensive search by villagers, including the use of drones, found nothing, her owners Lindesay and Jeanne Rudd-Clarke now believe she has been stolen.

Their call to criminalise pet theft has now reached parliament, with their MP, Caroline Nokes, calling the theft of animals, and Cleo in particular, “a wicked and despicable crime.”

Speaking in a Westminster Hall debate, the MP said she had received “a disproportionate number” of emails coming from Wherwell about the dog’s disappearance.

“She was company, she was exercise, she was part of the family,” she said. “We’re all trying to make her disappearance as well known as we can, hopefully making her too hot to handle.”

MPs were debating the proposals after a petition to make pet theft a specific offence reached 100,000 signatures, which requires it to be considered for a debate in parliament. At present, pets are treated the same as inanimate objects when it comes to sentencing.

Addressing other MPs, Nokes said: “We’ve heard this afternoon that in law, stealing a pet is no different to any inanimate object. But they’re not inanimate, and the trauma of losing a pet is absolutely horrific.

“There does need to be a decoupling from sentencing for the animal’s value... I don’t want to dwell on the reasons why a dog might be stolen… but the reasons are absolutely horrific. They don’t end up in the arms of a family which love them in the same way the one they have been ripped from does.”

She noted the Theft Act 1968 does cover the theft of animals with a maximum sentence of seven years, though she noted “that sort of sentence is very rarely handed down.”

Nokes called on the government to amend the act, “and bring it into line with how 21st Century Britain, and the village of Wherwell, feel about their pets.”

Anyone with information about Cleo’s disappearance can call 101 with the reference 44200367337 to assist with Hampshire Constabulary’s investigation.