The heartbroken owners of a cocker spaniel snatched from her home and pups are appealing for help to try to find her.

Thieves took two-year-old Wren from her dog run in the garden of Laura and Lee Styles in Sutton Road, Hersden, while they were out.

They brazenly walked through the front gate and into the back garden in broad daylight and used bolt croppers to get into the enclosure and take Wren out.

She had recently given birth to seven pups, five of which have gone to new homes and two remain.

They are 12 weeks old and were in a separate locked enclosure which the thieves did not see.

Care assistant and mum-of-three Laura, 32, said: “We are heartbroken because she was our baby. We are desperate to get her back and hope someone knows where she is.

“Our three children, Archie, Jamie and Sydney are all devastated too because she was part of the family.”

Wren is a pedigree cocker from a line of champions and the couple decided to breed her so game sport enthusiast Lee could keep a puppy to train as a retriever.

Laura said: “I had gone shopping to the supermarket when it happened and they must have known I was out and no one was at home.

"Our three children... are all devastated too because she was part of the family" - Laura Styles

“I can’t believe how brazen they were to walk through my front gate, take her and walk back out the same way. But Wren is very trusting and friendly.

“I am also worried that she may be hurt because it appears she was pulled though a very small hole.

“We have knocked on doors up and down the street and no one seems to have seen anything.

“But a neighbour does have CCTV of a silver Vauxhall Vectra whose number plate can be seen. When I did an internet insurance search, it showed up as registered to a Vauxhall Corsa, which is suspicious.”

• Anyone with information about Wren should call police on 101, quoting crime reference ZY/032195/15