“They were left in that bin like trash ... There was no care, no respect."
Stacey Silverstein has been rescuing abused and neglected dogs for the last 10 years, and she’s seen a lot of upsetting things. But a recent incident really raised her hackles — someone had left 10 puppies in a bin outside a shelter on a cold day.
“They were left in that bin like trash,” Silverstein, cofounder of Rescue Dogs Rock NYC, told The Dodo. “They were just thrown in there — piled like garbage, thrown in like trash. There was no care, no respect. Awful.”
Ten puppies were dumped in a bin and left outside of a rural shelter in Texas. | Rescue Dogs Rock NYCIt happened this past Sunday. A worker at a rural shelter in Del Rio, Texas, opened the door and discovered the bin with the puppies near the entrance.
On top of everything else, it was freezing that day — about 30 degrees Fahrenheit. If the puppies had stayed outside any longer, they probably would have perished.
A few of the puppies after being rescued and placed in foster care | Rescue Dogs Rock NYCThen there was the fact that the puppies were sickly and skinny.
“We thought that they were like a week or two old, but in fact they’re 3 or 4 weeks old,” Silverstein said. “They’re so malnourished, they look like they’re a week old.”
One of the puppies after being rescued — he was so young and weak, he needed to be bottle-fed | Rescue Dogs Rock NYCHelp came quickly. A shelter volunteer wrote a post about the puppies on Facebook, and word spread. Eventually, a woman named Leslie Ysuhuaylas, who volunteers for Rescue Dogs Rock NYC in Texas, picked up the puppies and got them into a good foster home.
Sadly, one of the puppies died, but the others are still holding on.
The puppies basking in the warmth of a heat lamp at their foster home | Rescue Dogs Rock NYC“They look good; they’re in great hands and they’ve had medical treatment,” Silverstein said. “One is not doing well, so [the foster mom is] basically carrying that one wherever she goes.”
It will be a long time before the puppies go up for adoption, Silverstein explained. First, they will need to regain their health, and they also have a lot of growing up to do.
Rescue Dogs Rock NYCBut when they are ready, Silverstein and her rescue partner, Jackie O’Sullivan, will move the puppies to New York City, and they’ll ensure that they find good stable homes — and that no one will dump them ever again.
