Puppies were found bound and gagged in Youngstown for the second time in a week. Except this time, the puppies didn't survive.
Dave Nelson, deputy dog warden with the Mahoning County Dog Warden's Office, said the 6-or-7-week-old German shepherd puppies were found near the WRTA terminal downtown. He estimates they had been dead about four or five hours by the time he found them.
"One of the most disgusting things in all of the years I've been here," Nelson said.
He said it's one of the worst animal abuse cases ever discovered in Mahoning County. The puppies were bound, gagged and left for dead about 15 feet behind the WRTA bus station in downtown Youngstown.
"I've been doing this job a long time and haven't seen anything like that in a long time," Nelson said.
He said the knots were tied so tightly and intricately that the more the puppies tried to pull away, the more they were strangled.
"The way that they did this is not your typical animal cruelty," Nelson said.
But what's most alarming to officials is that the gruesome display is eerily similar to another case from just last week. Another puppy of a similar or same breed was found bound and gagged in the exact same way on South Lakeview Avenue, which is on the West Side of the city. A neighbor saw it lying on the porch of a nearby house and called police.
Officials were able to treat that puppy and it did survive.
Authorities are now looking at surveillance tapes from WRTA and surrounding buildings, hoping to find the person, or people that did this.
"A crime like this is they just don't want to bring them to the pound or take them somewhere and drop them off. This was an act for fun, killing, that's what this is, and people like that, you need to prosecute and find them," Nelson said.
