The RSPCA are appealing for information after two puppies were ‘lucky to be alive’ after being dumped at a motorway service station last week.
The Boston Terrier-type puppies, aged around 8 to 10 weeks, were found by children who had stopped at the Hopwood Service station, just off the M42, with their mother last Friday (3rd August).
The distressed pups were found in a box close to bins at lunchtime, as temperatures soared to around 30ºC.
The woman rushed the pups – who were overheated and distressed – to a local vet’s for treatment.
One of the puppies was seriously ill with heat-stroke and was in respiratory distress. He had to have oxygen and was cooled down with wet towels. His body temperature was 41ºC, which would have been fatal if he had not received the treatment he did.
These adorable dogs have been named Billy and Bobby and are doing well in foster care.
RSPCA Inspector Herchy Boal is investigating the incident. She said: “It really is disgusting that someone would just throw out these puppies away as though they were rubbish.
“It was by pure chance that these dogs were found by the passing motorist and if they had been left much longer they could have easily died from heat stroke as the temperatures were really high and beginning to climb further. The cardboard box had the lid shut and it was like an oven in there for them.”
It is hoped that the distinctive cardboard box the dogs were found in – marked with the logo The EUROGROUP International Moving with the word ‘kitchen’ written in pen – will help identify the person responsible.
Herchy said that she would also be looking at CCTV footage as part of her investigation into who abandoned the dogs and appealed for anyone who saw anything suspicious in the area last Friday to call the RSPCA Appeals Line on 0300 123 8018
Busy Summer for animal welfare charity
Summer is the busiest season for the animal welfare charity and the warmer months of 2017 saw more than 10,000 calls to its 24-hour emergency hotline about dumped pets – one every 12 minutes.
Those calls involved anything from cats left on the street tied up in bags, horses abandoned at the side of the road close to death, to dogs dumped out with the rubbish.
The RSPCA’s assistant director of inspectorate Dermot Murphy said: “Summer is the busiest time at the RSPCA, and it’s the time we see the most abandoned animals. With the number of calls rising and an increase in the number of animals collected, we are facing another welfare crisis this year as we head into the summer months.
“Last summer our team of inspectors and officers investigated more complaints of abandoned animals than they had done for two years which shows a worrying trend that things might be getting worse. We try to help as many animals as we can but we have just 332 inspectors which means 1 inspector for every 162,000 people so we have to prioritise the animals who are suffering most.
“We see every type of animal abandoned from dogs, cats and small animals to horses, farm animals and even exotic animals like pythons just left out on the street in their vivariums.
“Every animal has specific welfare needs and it’s so dangerous to leave any animal abandoned and having to fend for itself.
“There’s no saying why people choose to abandon their animals, or why this rises in the summer – possibly people dump their animals when they head off on holiday and haven’t found anyone to look after their pet when they’re away. Or maybe they feel less guilty, leaving a pet to fend for itself in the warmer weather, compared to the cold winter months.”
If you’d like to help the RSPCA as the charity faces yet another busy summer rescuing, rehabilitating and rehoming thousands of animals, please visit www.rspca.org.uk/penny