By JAN McLAUGHLIN
BG Independent News
Seven emaciated dogs were dropped off at the Wood County Dog Shelter on Thursday.
Wood County Chief Dog Warden Jodi Harding is working with the cruelty officer at the Toledo Humane Society to determine if an investigation is warranted in the case.
The dogs – all pit mixes – were delivered to the dog shelter in a rusty cage that had been secured with a bungee cord in a partially closed vehicle, Harding said.
The Toledo woman who brought them to the shelter first said she found the seven dogs in the Meijer parking lot in Bowling Green. However, when a deputy warden suggested checking video surveillance from the store, the woman said she actually took them from a homeless person in Toledo. She did not give a full name or location of where she picked up the dogs.
“We’re thinking they were her dogs, but we can’t prove that,” Harding said.
The three adults and four puppies are all thin, with hip bones and ribs sticking out.
“They scarfed down food the second they came in,” Harding said of the dogs now dubbed Mickey, Sully, Boo, Daisy, Lilly, Rose and Dunbar.
The puppies, which are 7 to 8 months old, should weigh 30 to 40 pounds, but instead are 20-25 pounds.
When they arrived, the dogs were filthy, with feces in their long nails and their teeth, and unfamiliar with leashes. The dogs don’t appear afraid of people, but they collapsed to the ground when leashes were put around their necks.
“We have to pick them up and carry them everywhere,” Harding said. “They are terrified.”
While many of the dogs at the shelter grab toys from baskets, and carry them around, these dogs do not know how to play with dog toys, and are scared of toys that emit squeaks, Harding said.
“They don’t know what toys are,” she said.
“There’s no reason they should be this thin and this dirty,” Harding said. There are multiple food banks in the region that offer pet food, she said. “There are places that will help. All you have to do is ask.”
The dog shelter has seen a rash in abandoned animals lately. In addition to the seven dumped there Thursday, two dogs were found this week by Lake Township Police at the Super 8 Motel parking lot. In that case, the dogs were left with an open bag of dog food and two rawhides. And four puppies were picked up earlier this week by the Wood County Sheriff’s Office on Tank Farm Road near Bairdstown.
That has left the shelter with a high occupancy rate of 21 as of Friday afternoon.
“I don’t know what is going on, but it’s been bad,” Harding said.
The shelter has enough kennels for the 21 dogs, but could use donations of canned food, soft treats, and enrichment food such as peanut butter and canned pumpkin.
The seven dogs brought in Thursday have all since received their vaccines for distemper, parvo and bordetella. If the dogs don’t go to the Toledo Humane Society, they will be put on hold at the Wood County Dog Shelter until they can be adopted.
