A group of 10 newborn puppies were recovered and reunited with their mother after a man reportedly tossed the 3-week-old puppies into a bush near the Mission Viejo Animal Services Center.
The puppies – who’ve since been named after dessert flavors by shelter personnel – were tossed around 2:30 a.m. along a road leading to the center at 28095 Hillcreston on July 24, the shelter said in a post on Facebook. The road is set against a wilderness area, leaving the puppies vulnerable to coyotes who wander the area.
A few hours later after they were ditched, Chip, Caramel, Mint, Maple, Chocolate, Cookie Dough, Butterscotch, Cookies n Cream, Ripple and Coffee were discovered in a vinyl puppy pool by a volunteer dog walker, when the canine alerted him to the puppies’ location by dragging him over to a bush.
The puppies were immediately brought into the shelter, where they were nursed back to health and sent into foster care, the shelter said in their Aug. 7 post.
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Surveillance video from the shelter showed a man tossing the puppies before driving off. He was later identified, and the Mission Viejo Animal Services Center is in the process of filing animal cruelty charges against him with the Orange County District Attorney’s Office, officials said.
It wasn’t clear why he tossed away the puppies.
Their mother, Holly, was located and reunited with her 10 newborns, believed to be Australian Shepherd and Labrador mixes, said Kyle Werner, Lt. of field services with the shelter. He praised the center’s nonprofit DAWG, which paid for the dogs’ vet visits and will be covering their spay and neuter fees.
All the pups are in good health and will be available for adoption in the future.
