Shelter Finds Mama Dog and 6 Puppies Abandoned in Freezing Cold, 4 Already Dead
Abandonment is an act of cruelty no living thing should ever have to experience.
Sadly, we still see countless dogs and cats heartlessly dumped on the side of the road, into trash cans, and more.
Whether these people abandon animals out of cruelty or because they can no longer care for them, they are putting helpless creatures in harms way.
And when weather conditions are harsh and unforgiving, the results can be even more devastating.
An animal shelter in Kentucky is investigating the abandonment of a dog on their property after finding her in an outdoor kennel around 3 p.m.
A woman who works with the shelter, Teresa Stidham, was taking an animal outside when she heard what she thought was a kitten nearby.
She went over to the kennels and was shocked to find a dog curled up inside of a plastic dog house.
But the dog was not alone. Six puppies lay around her, ice built up behind them on the plastic.
The dog must have been about to give birth when she was abandoned in the freezing temperatures. But Stidham had no idea how long they had been out there.
There were no blankets or straw between the animals and the cold dog house, and tragically, four of the six puppies had already died.
When Stidham discovered them, she immediately wrapped the puppies in a blanket and brought them and mom into the shelter for care.
But the shelter is looking into whether or not the animal was truly abandoned by her real owner. “We don’t know if a neighbor has confiscated his neighbors dog up here, we don’t know if it’s truly abandoned,” said Stidham. “We don’t know the situation, nothing about the animal.”
The shelter said it is against the law to abandon dogs or cats, and in this case, the law was clearly broken.
They are now investigating, and the shelter wants this tragic story to serve as an example to others who might think about abandoning an animal in the cold.
“They can put them in a garage. They can put them in a laundry room. There are just ways to make them more comfortable because the temps are just unbearable and dogs do freeze to death. They get hypothermia,” Stidham said.
Since then, the puppies have been taken into foster homes and will be cared for there until they are healthy enough for adoption.
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