A puppy that was tossed outside a car window and abandoned last week near a North Carolina animal shelter has been rescued — and the man behind the sickening act was arrested.
Though found “malnourished and loaded down with fleas and parasites” and suffering from two small fractures and minor abrasions, the canine is safe and expected to make a full recovery, animal shelter PAWS Bryson City announced Tuesday.
“Thank you to everyone that’s been supporting us through all of this. We are so thankful we got him inside,” said the shelter.
The pup — who has since been named Apollo — has been taken in by PAWS and will spend the next few weeks living there until he has recovered enough to be put up for adoption.
PAWS and the local community spent days fervently combing several miles of brush that surround the shelter after the man — whose identity has not been revealed — tossed Apollo out of his window.
Distressing surveillance video shows the abuser arguing with other people inside his SUV before abruptly opening his car door and slamming it shut.
He then grabs and hurls Apollo out the window so forcefully that the puppy flips over, barreling toward the ground headfirst.
The horrifying ordeal took place just outside the gate of PAWS, which was open for business at the time.
“Our shelter gate was open,” Director of PAWS Beth Stroud told USA Today. “He chose not to even come through the gates. He had never called.”
Stroud doesn’t know the motive behind the man’s upsetting actions, but said she and her staff would have been more than willing to help him and Apollo.
The man should have simply dropped the dog off at the shelter’s door, just steps away from where he tossed the dog, she said.
“The way that he discarded this puppy is just wrong and against the law,” said Stroud.
Apollo ran away after the traumatizing toss, prompting the shelter to launch a massive rescue mission, as well as a hunt for the pup’s abuser.
The man was quickly identified and was charged with animal cruelty and abandonment, according to Stroud.
He is due to appear in court later this month.
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