Trash collectors save puppies dumped in garbage

What started as a normal shift for Department of Environmental Health workers Dave McLaughlin and Shane Jackson quickly turned into a rescue effort to save the lives of four puppies abandoned in the trash.

On their routine garbage collection run in East End on Friday morning, they made a shocking discovery.

“The first thought was, this is disgusting. It’s so evil that someone could throw away four living beings … just discard it,” McLaughlin said.

Though the two men were hailed as heroes, McLaughlin told the Cayman Compass on Sunday that saving the puppies was just “the decent thing to do; anyone would have done the same”.

Heartbreaking sight

Jackson, who was charged with collecting trash and tossing it into McLaughlin’s truck that morning, said he was alerted by the sound of cries coming from a pile of garbage.

Deciding to take a closer look, the DEH solid waste operator said he was disturbed by what he saw.

“One of the puppies was rifling through the garbage bag. When we looked [at] a sewing machine box, and when we looked inside of the box, there was a puppy in there. At that time, we only seen two; when we looked closely, there wasn’t only two, it was four of them … two were directly in the garbage bag itself,” he said.

Jackson said he could not believe someone could be so cruel to throw the dogs away like trash.

He said the puppies were quite lucky to survive the situation.

“If conditions were different, if it was raining as heavy as it was just hours later with the noise from the truck … we would definitely not have heard [the ones in the bag and the one in the box]. We would have thrown them in the back of the truck,” he said.

Jackson said he alerted McLaughlin and the men decided to take them to safety.

He said they bundled the shivering puppies and put them in the cab with McLaughlin.

McLaughlin, an animal lover, said they finished their route and agreed to drop the animals off at the shelter.

When one of the puppies snuggled up next to McLaughlin along the way, he knew he was doing the right thing.

So upset by the heartless action that befell the puppies, Jackson decided to adopt one, which he named Rain.

So far, he said the puppy and his other dog, Leyla, have been getting on, “like brother and sister”.

“It broke my heart to a certain extent. It would break anyone. They are young and cannot fend for themselves,” Jackson said.

It was a joyful reunion for the men on Sunday as they visited the puppies at the shelter.

McLaughlin said they considered giving the puppies to other people, but in the end, they believed the right place to care for them would be the Humane Society.

Cayman Islands Humane Society director Saskia Salden, speaking with the Cayman Compass about the incident, said she was “shocked and horrified” by the actions of whoever dumped the animals.

Salden said if Jackson had not checked on the noises, maybe the puppies’ fate would have been much worse.

“The real heroes of this are the two garbage collectors, because they really, really saved these puppies’ lives,” she said.

“Why is this still happening? There is no need for people to do this kind of thing.”

She said the puppies, believed to be mixed with pitbull, were no older than five weeks.

“This definitely is to me a case of cruelty,” she said, adding she believes this is something the Department of Agriculture could investigate.

McLaughlin agreed.

“If it is an accident, and your dog does get pregnant and have puppies, don’t just discard them,” he said.

“Bring them to the Humane Society or even give them away to neighbours or friends … If it’s a burden to you, maybe it’s happiness to others.”

Fighting chance

The puppies have been named Shane, in Jackson’s honour, Sophie and Samuel.

Jackson, upon learning of this, said, he was touched.

“I think it’s pretty cool they named it after me considering that we found it. It feels pretty good,” he said.

Salden said the puppies will have to be quarantined and checked by a vet for parasites.

They are estimated to be about five weeks old, “which is not good”, Salden said.

“Maybe they were weaned off the mum, maybe not. We don’t know. But they’re way too young to be separated from the mother,” she said.

She said Shane, Sophie and Samuel, however, “will have a better life now that they are safe”.

“When they’re bigger in a couple of weeks’ time, they will also be spayed and neutered so they won’t have any unwanted litters. We are going to make sure they are well taken care of and fed, and go into happy homes,” Salden added.

She said there have been many calls to adopt the puppies, but they have to be kept together for now due to their tender age.

Struggling to keep up

Salden and Humane Society shelter manager Barry Martin say this incident is just the latest case of animals being abandoned in the trash by owners.

Martin’s staff often find animals at the shelter’s front door or even tossed in their trash.

Salden said someone recently brought kittens that were in a garbage bag and left in a trash can.

“Somebody that walked by heard some noise and checked, and there was some kittens in there. It’s not necessary … if people do not want any unwanted litters, then they need to spay and neuter their pets,” Salden said.

Martin said he had to dig into the donation bin outside the shelter to retrieve a kitten that was abandoned on Friday.

“We have seen the results of not fixing your animals, we’re overflowing. Our capacity at the moment for cats is around 60-65. We are now over 80. Same with dogs, we’re way over capacity. The result of that is we can’t take them. We want to take them, we don’t want them to be abandoned … It’s heartbreaking for us,” he said.

The shelter is “beyond, beyond capacity”, Salden said.

She said 33 animals had been brought into the shelter by mid-May.

“It’s just non-stop. Something has to be done to stop all this. Things need to happen … The [animal cruelty] law needs to change. We need government’s help,” she said.

Salden urged the community to come forward and foster an animal because there is just no more room in the shelter.

“The only place I think we don’t have an animal is in the toilet. Every cage, every kennel, everywhere is full and we cannot put them anywhere else. We need more foster homes,” she pleaded.

Martin urged pet owners to be more responsible.

“This is why spay and neuter is so important to reduce the number of unwanted litters,” he said.

In March last year, the Humane Society was granted planning approval for a new shelter on a 15-acre plot of land in West Bay.

Salden said she is hoping that they can make an announcement soon on the progress of the plans for the new shelter.

For more details about how to foster or adopt an animal, visit the Humane Society website.