Video shows 4th dog this month being abandoned outside South Jersey shelter
OCEAN CITY, New Jersey (WPVI) -- The Humane Society of Ocean City is searching for a forever home for a dog left outside the shelter last week.
Surveillance video shows the dog's former owner tying her to a bench just after midnight on August 1.
A note left behind said the dog was a 1-year-old pit bull named Mello. The former owner also wrote that they could no longer care for her.
Officials with the South Jersey shelter say this is the fourth dog that has been dumped outside their location in the last 30 days.
"It was painful to watch," noted Phil Bellucci, executive director of the shelter.
Bellucci said an Ocean City patrol officer first spotted Mello outside.
Frustrated by the amount of pets being left behind, Bellucci and others at the shelter took to Facebook.
"People are dumping these animals like never has been seen before and we think WE as a society need to try to wrap our heads around it and figure out what the heck is going on," the shelter wrote in a post.
He hopes that this incident can spark a wider conversation.
"The fact that they dropped them off at the shelter -- some people would say at least they did that, and maybe that is true, rather than dropping them in the woods or something like that. But the bottom line is they abandoned the dog," Bellucci said.
"We posted the video to try to get a dialogue started," he added.
In July, Action News reported on a dog who was thrown over a fence around 2 a.m. at the Humane Society of Atlantic City.
Officials there said it had been their fourth case in recent months as well.
"We're not unique -- the Philadelphia area, Camden area, Atlantic County, Cape May County, they're all seeing the same things," said Bellucci.
He said he'd like to see people being more thoughtful when surrendering a pet.
Experts say if you're going to surrender an animal, contact the shelter first and plan it out. There would be no judgment, Bellucci noted.
