Janet Fraser and her husband Bruce were walking along their usual route on Hinchey Avenue in New Waterford Friday afternoon when they encountered something wrapped up in a dark, blue blanket in the ditch.
“We thought it was a stuffed toy and then (Bruce) said ‘Oh, I’m not touching that,’” Fraser said. “The quilt was that big. Bruce said ‘oh my God, is that a person?’”
A young, German Shepherd lay wrapped in a taped up blanket along the isolated road. There are no homes in the area where the animal was found — a stretch of road that Fraser said has plenty of problems with dumping both garbage and dead pets.
Fraser described the animal as being “tossed out like garbage.”
“I don’t know how they get here,” she said. “(There have been) small kittens (too), so I would say they’re being dumped.”
An examination of the dog Saturday by Kenny Manning, animal control officer with the Cape Breton SPCA, showed no signs of abuse. Medical tape wrapped around the dog’s right paw held a cotton swab on a shaved section where an injection was given to the animal, something Manning believed was done professionally at a veterinarian’s office.
Manning said he planned on calling local veterinarian offices today to see if anyone recently had that type of dog brought in for euthanization. If that is indeed the case, it wouldn’t result in an animal cruelty case because the animal was put down humanely.
It would then become a municipal dumping issue. Disposing of a dead animal should be done in the correct manner, said Manning.
“That dog may be young, but it’s still part of a family. Just to disregard it on the side of the road because of a financial burden or whatever, it’s not right,” he said.
