NESQUEHONING, Pa. — After allegedly being ditched along Penn Forest Trail in Jim Thorpe, six Belgian Malinois/shepherd mix pups are being cared for at the Carbon County Animal Shelter in Nesquehoning.
Shelter manager Tom Connors says he received a call on Tuesday that six dogs were found on the trail, but volunteers could only catch four. The other two remain missing.
"The dogs were definitely hungry," Connors said. "They weren't that undernourished, but they were definitely scared. They appeared to be young, and a couple of them have bruises and bumps."
Dumping dogs is illegal, and Connors says it happens frequently.
"If people were to deal with us the right way and call us and say, 'I got these puppies; I need some help,' we could certainly help them, and it works better for everybody. But to dump them out in the woods like that is just sinful."
A trail camera and food now sit in the same spot where the first four dogs were located in hopes that the other two will come back.
"We've been out now for two days trying to find them and look for them. We have volunteers going out to the trail looking, too," Connors said.
"We wanted to take our dogs out on a little walk, and we figured out what could we do but maybe help find those dogs and get them safe before something happens to them," said Brian Cianchetti of Nesquehoning.
Taking in the dogs brings the shelter close to capacity. To help offset costs, Connors is asking people to donate money or food to help the pups.
"We rely a lot on canned food. Purina canned food is the choice here for the dogs, so if people could help us," Connors said." Treats for the dogs, we give our dogs a lot of treats."
After the dogs get spayed/neutered and receive their shots, they'll be up for adoption.
Currently, there is no investigation into who allegedly dumped the dogs.
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