A DOG owner who has been searching for her beloved pet since Christmas Day has received a ransom call requesting money for his return.

Amanda Lambert's liver and white eight-year-old family pet springer spaniel named Max has not been seen for over three months since going missing from the Stoke Lacy area near Bromyard.

Despite radio, television and a Facebook appeal with nearly 9,000 members of the 'Lets get Max home!' group no information on his whereabouts has been obtained.

In February Amanda received 'malicious' calls after search posters went viral on the internet with Amanda's contact number on them.

Now criminals have gone one step further by requested money for Max's safe return.

"I don't know whether it was an April fools joke as it was on April 1," said Amanda.

"We had the ransom call on Friday morning and basically they wanted money for Max and they said they had him although they had no proof whatsoever. 

"They wanted me to pay money into a bank account rather than meeting me with the dog. Instead I handed over their details to the police."

Volunteers remain searching the Herefordshire countryside for Max although Amanda says they are running out of ideas to where her springer spaniel could be.

She added: "We are getting to the point where we don't know where else to look.

"There has been no sightings for some time although he has to be somewhere. You can't just lose an 18 kilogramme dog.

"So we're still looking but we're not sure where we are looking. All I want is some form of closure, we know he is somewhere alive or dead."