Fourteen dogs and cats were found stuffed inside 10 bags left on the back of a pickup truck in Samut Prakan on Tuesday night, police said.
The badly dehydrated and exhausted animals – 12 dogs and two cats – were later rescued and sent to the Ruam Duay Chuay Kan volunteer centre for temporary shelter.
Pol Lt-Colonel Uthit Sudjai, an inspector at Samrong Nua police station, said the dogs and cats were definitely abandoned to be suffocated in the bags without the knowledge of the unidentified owner of the pickup. The vehicle has been left unattended for months.
Uthit was alerted at 1am on Wednesday by Patipan Thaiyakorn, 22, who heard the animals crying from the pickup parked near a wastewater treatment pond on Soi Wat Dan Samronng in Tambon Dan Samrong in Muang district.
But when on his return to his vehicle late at night, he still heard the cries. He looked around and spotted the bags on the back of the pickup.
He cut open the bags and found the exhausted, mostly elderly, dogs and cats. He rushed to buy milk and food to feed the animals before he called the police.
Police said the Khon Rub Ma Foundation in Chon Buri contacted the Ruam Duay Chuay Kan centre to take care of the animals.
Police will check security-camera footage to try to locate the person who abandoned the animals. If a suspect is identified, he or she will face charges of animal cruelty.
The Nation
