![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/1_HMR_200426_Zak.jpg\")
<\/p>\n12-year-old Zak was found dead and police are now investigating<\/p>\n
Ryan Collins was walking Zak when he was approached by three youths(Image: Susan Grandon)<\/p>\n
Police are investigating the death of a dog alleged to have been stolen during a walk then left on a railway track to die.<\/p>\n
The 12-year-old Cairn Terrier-type dog, named Zak, was being walked by owner Janet Collins’ son, Ryan, who is described as a vulnerable adult.<\/p>\n
They were walking along the Taff Trail between Mountain Ash and Penrhiwceiber when they were approached by three youths.<\/p>\n
The three youths are said to have grabbed the dog’s lead and run away.<\/p>\n
A huge search operation was launched after Zak was stolen with family and friends walking the trail in hopes to locate the dog.<\/p>\n
![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/0_HMR_200426_Zak_02.jpg\")
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Zak was 12 years old when he died(Image: Susan Grandon)<\/p>\n
Susan Grandon, a family friend who was leading the search, claimed the three youths then dumped the dog on a railway line where he was hit by a train and killed.<\/p>\n
Hours after Zak was found dead the hashtag Justice4Zak was trending on Facebook<\/a> and local residents have been changing their profile pictures in support.<\/p>\n Owners Janet and Ryan have asked for privacy as they grieve.<\/p>\n A graphic people are using on their profile pictures on Facebook in order to raise awareness for Zak’s story(Image: Susan Grandon)<\/p>\n A South Wales Police<\/a> spokesman said: “On Saturday, April 18, South Wales Police received a report of a dog being stolen from its owner in Penrhiwceiber, Mountain Ash.<\/p>\n “We have since learnt that Zak the dog was sadly found dead the following day.<\/p>\n “An investigation into the incident is ongoing.”<\/p>\n Anyone with any information that could assist the police in their investigation into the theft and subsequent death of Zak cancontact South Wales Police directly by any of the usual means.<\/p>\n Get daily breaking news updates on your phone by joining our WhatsApp community here<\/a>. We occasionally treat members to special offers, promotions and ads from us and our partners. See our Privacy Notice<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"12-year-old Zak was found dead and police are now investigating Ryan Collins was walking Zak when he was…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":18191,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[61,1389,3128,8357,5,6],"class_list":{"0":"post-18190","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-uk","8":"tag-crime","9":"tag-dogs","10":"tag-merthyr-tydfil","11":"tag-mountain-ash","12":"tag-uk","13":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@UnitedKingdom\/116438838990654143","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18190","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18190"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18190\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/18191"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18190"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18190"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18190"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/0_HMR_2Susan-Grandon00426_Zak_03.jpg\")
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