By JONATHAN FELDMAN
Leader staff writer
Surveillance video is being examined to find out who is responsible for dumping a tiny puppy in the garbage at Splash Car Wash on Main Street in Jacksonville.
The puppy was found Thursday covered in fleas and ticks in a trash can.
The pup was severely weak and malnourished.
“He’s probably suffering from heat exhaustion or shock. I don’t know if he’ll make it,” shelter manager Hedy Limke said when the puppy was brought in.
He was only five or six weeks old, and he was fighting for his life. But the battle ended that night.
The puppy was discovered by a car wash customer, who was vacuuming her car at about 3:30 p.m. Thursday.
The puppy had probably been in the trash can less than 24 hours, Limke added.
The scorching afternoon heat would probably have killed him as he lay in the heap of garbage if it had spent much more time there.
“We’ve called the car wash owner to get the security video,” Limke said.
She believes that the surveillance footage may lead to the arrest of the person responsible for dumping the puppy.
The puppy went home with one of the animal control officers who tried to nurse the pup back to health with vitamin supplements, milk and sugar water before he died.
It’s the third case of extreme animal abuse the Jacksonville shelter has handled this summer.
Last month, a young chihuahua was found paralyzed by multiple wounds from a pellet gun.
Despite the shelter’s efforts to save him, the dog was eventually euthanized because of irreversible paralysis.
In June, the shelter picked up a Boston terrier whose collar had grown into his neck, a gruesome sight.
The terrier underwent emergency surgery to remove the chain and repair his neck, and has since been adopted.
