Two neighbors made a disturbing discovery on their street in Washington County’s Canton Township on Sunday.
Jacqueline Kosek said her neighbor was walking her dog along Beacon Avenue early in the morning when she heard screams coming from a garbage can in front of a house.
She ran to get Kosek, who rummaged through the trash and found three Pitbull mix puppies buried in a trash can in front of a house down the street.
“I took all the trash off the top and I came across three bags that were tied shut, and I opened them up and there were three live puppies,” Kosek said.
State Police Tpr. Rocco Gagliardi said the women heard the puppies crying outside in the cold and immediately helped rescue three of them.
“When they actually went to the trash can, they heard it getting louder and louder and louder. They kept hearing what these dogs were crying in the garbage can,” he said.
Gagliardi said the puppies had serious injuries to their legs. Sadly, police said one puppy was found dead, but Kosek believes there may have been more.
“It was horrible,” Kosek said. “That’s the worst thing I’ve ever done… and all I could think of was why someone would do something so horrible… you could have taken them somewhere and turned them in.”
Kosek told Channel 11 that when she continued to dig through the trash can, she found at least three other puppies dead at the very bottom. They were also tied up in plastic shopping bags.
“Here’s the sad part: There were six puppies. Five puppies had their legs chewed off,” she said.
Kosek and her neighbor called 911 and kept the puppies alive until troops arrived at the house to help.
“I was staring at getting towels and we started rubbing the three of them to get them warm,” Kosek said.
The neighbors said they also gave the puppies milk through a syringe, stopped the bleeding and placed them on a heated blanket.
“Really a good shout out to those neighbors who had good situational awareness and saw something was wrong and those dogs helped, because if they really didn’t get there and make that statistical call, we’re looking at a completely different scenario. Gagliardi said.
Police are investigating whether the puppies were already dead before they were put in the trash.
The puppies’ owner, Franklin Donley, is in the Washington County Jail facing several charges of aggravated animal cruelty. Gagliardi said more people could be charged.
The three puppies that survived now get a fighting chance. They are at the vet awaiting surgery on their legs on Monday.
“I want him to go to jail and I don’t want him to ever have an animal again,” Kosek said of Donley. “That was horrible.”
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