Over a dozen abandoned puppies that were packed into one crate and left in an alley in New York have been rescued — but only after local authorities received a noise complaint about barking dogs.
According to a statement shared to Facebook by the Nassau County Police Department, police in Long Island received a call on the evening of Wednesday, Feb. 26 about dogs barking in the town of East Rockaway near Centre Ave.
“When they arrived, they found 14 puppies in a plastic cage abandoned in an alley,” police wrote.
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Photos taken by the department showed the crate of puppies — all various breeds and sizes — being loaded into the back of a police truck. According to NCPD, the dogs were all taken to the nearby Town of Hempstead Animal Shelter.
Each of the dogs is being taken care of by the shelter, police added. No information was available about who abandoned the animals or if any criminal incident had occurred.
Just last week, a similar incident occurred in Utah when two abandoned dogs were left alone in a cage in a desert.
The Hurricane Animal Shelter, located in Hurricane, located north of the Arizona border, shared in a Facebook post that the two dogs were found off of the 318 near Quail Lake with “no food or water” on Feb. 23.
According to Fox 13 Salt Lake City, two hikers found the male Landseers on the morning of Feb. 23. Police then reportedly took the canines to the shelter.
“We have minimal information on who left them. No collars or microchips,” Hurricane Animal Shelter wrote in their post. “If anyone knows additional information that could be helpful in this case, please contact us at 435-635-8314.”
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“Everybody needs to stop thinking that animals are disposable. They’re not disposable,” Hurricane resident Andrea Kaz told Fox 13.
Kaz continued, “In a case like this where they’re found in a cage, they left them to die. This wasn’t, ‘Hey, maybe you can fend on your own.’ It’s ‘I’m leaving you here, and I’m leaving you here in the sun, crated, to die.'”
While the incident is being investigated as a potential animal cruelty case, the dogs were reportedly found in healthy condition, the outlet added.
“If every single person in the country were to adopt eight animals, we could clear the shelters,” Kaz said. “But within weeks, because of lack of spay and neuter and people not being responsible pet owners, the shelters would then again be full.”
She added, “So this isn’t something that’s a one type of solution. This is all-encompassing. Everyone needs to be responsible.”