It’s a tragic reminder of how dangerous this cold weather is, a dog abandoned in the cold, died outside of a rescue agency early Tuesday morning.
The dog was left in a cage outside of the Detroit Dog Rescue in the middle of the night and it didn't stand a chance in the cold weather.
The person responsible didn't call the rescue or even knock on the door, but he was caught on camera.
The surveillance video shows the last hours of the small dog’s life, abandoned in dangerous wind chills.
A man in maroon, silver and white van left the cage with the dog inside and drove away.
"Unfortunately the dog perished in the middle of the night," says Kristina Rinaldi with Detroit Dog Rescue. "This is not the kind of weather, a, you want to leave your pets in and, b, you want to abandon them in."
Rinaldi is the Executive Director of the Detroit Dog Rescue. She says she understands people sometimes don't have the resources to take care of their pets any longer, but this is not the way to handle it.
"This is cruelty, this is neglect, this is abandonment,” says Rinaldi. “We’re very sad this happened and we want to find out the details."
Rinaldi says this dog suffered terribly.
"The way we found it was just horrific, on a wet pillow. Looked like the dog had a terrible death, feces and a little bit of blood, but nothing on the body that presented any kind of trauma," she says.
DDR has sent the dog for an official necropsy but all early indications show it died from the cold.
Rinaldi says if you know anything about this, call the Detroit Dog Rescue. And it you need help for your pet and you can no longer take care of it, they have plenty of resources online.
