Police Looking For Owners Who Left Injured Dogs To Die

BALTIMORE (WJZ) -- A gruesome animal abuse case has investigators baffled as they try to find out who left an injured dog in a trash bag to die.

As Gigi Barnett explains, this is the second case of this kind in less than a month.

"It makes me upset. The photos were extremely hard to look at," said Bailey Deacon, BARCS.

Baltimore City animal workers are still shaken by what police discovered behind a grocery store in the 3800 block of Lombard Street last week.

Inside a trash bag, next to feet of snow was a dog badly bruised and clinging to life. Animal workers were forced to put the it down.

"Our vets believe if he hadn't been left out in the cold, that he could have been a success case. But because he was abandoned and neglected, he was just too far along," said Deacon.

The same thing happened just last month to a six-month-old puppy. Someone stuffed it into a trash bag and then left it for dead at a vacant lot in Anne Arundel County.

The dog didn't survive, and police are listing it as an animal cruelty case.

Now they're looking for the owner.

"We're not sure if it's somebody from the neighborhood or if it was someone who was driving through the neighborhood," said Lt. Ryan Frashure, Anne Arundel County Police Department.

In this latest case, police say it was a delivery driver who tipped them off to the suspicious bag. He was out on the loading dock and saw that something just didn't look right. He walked over to the bag, looked inside and found the dog.

Now police are looking for clues that lead to the owner.

"We're really unsure how long the dog was out in the snow, so we're hoping someone can come foward," said Jeremy Silbert, Baltimore City Police Department.

Workers at Baltimore's animal shelter, BARCS, are outraged by both cases.

"It doesn't need to happen. That's what BARCS is here for. We're here to take these pets in," Deacon said.

Beginning this year, the FBI will begin tracking animal cruelty cases.

The cases are now being categorized under the FBI's Crimes Against Society Division.