Exclusive: Man who found burned puppy in Coachella dumpster speaks out
A puppy just a few weeks old was found burned and beaten in a dumpster behind a Coachella shopping center at 49849 Harrison Street on Sunday at around 1 p.m.
According to the Animal Hope & Wellness Foundation, a non-profit shelter in Sherman Oaks, the puppy was found in a Walmart shopping bag. A portion of the puppy’s tail had been cut off and she is unable to walk due to the trauma she suffered from being beaten and assaulted.
{“type”:”video”,”version”:”1.0″,”provider_name”:”Vimeo”,”provider_url”:”https://vimeo.com/”,”title”:”Hope”,”author_name”:”Animal Hope Wellness”,”author_url”:”https://vimeo.com/animalhopeandwellness”,”is_plus”:”0″,”account_type”:”basic”,”html”:”&#lt;iframe src=”https://player.vimeo.com/video/335062256?app_id=122963″ width=”600″ height=”338″ frameborder=”0″ title=”Hope” allow=”autoplay; fullscreen” allowfullscreen&#gt;&#lt;/iframe&#gt;”,”width”:600,”height”:338,”duration”:11,”description”:””,”thumbnail_url”:”https://i.vimeocdn.com/video/781537636_295x166.jpg”,”thumbnail_width”:295,”thumbnail_height”:166,”thumbnail_url_with_play_button”:”https://i.vimeocdn.com/filter/overlay?src0=https%3A%2F%2Fi.vimeocdn.com%2Fvideo%2F781537636_295x166.jpg&src1=http%3A%2F%2Ff.vimeocdn.com%2Fp%2Fimages%2Fcrawler_play.png”,”upload_date”:”2019-05-09 02:03:21″,”video_id”:335062256,”uri”:”/videos/335062256″}
Jose Luis Arevalo found the puppy after hearing its cries in the dumpster. He brought the puppy inside the jewelry shop across from the dumpster.
“I was walking by the trash when I heard the animal crying and I told my daughter maybe someone left the puppy here… I knew it was a puppy and someone had abandoned it,” Arevalo said.
Inside the store, an employee and her daughter spearheaded the efforts to save the puppy’s life.
“I thought she was going to die on us. She wasn’t really moving. She was crying a lot every time we touched her every time she moved she would cry,” said Alejandra Espinoza Zazueta, who helped rescue the puppy.
Zazueta decided to take matters into her own hands. She started a GoFundMe page to pay for the dog’s medical expenses; the launching of that online campaign led to Alanna Rizzo, a reporter for the LA Dodgers, reaching out and offering to pay for Hope’s surgery and care at the Indio Animal Hospital.
***WARNING – Graphic photo & video below***
The puppy, who Zazueta named Hope, is currently under twenty-four-hour monitoring in the shelter’s intensive care unit.
The Animal Hope & Wellness Foundation is offering a $10,000 reward for information leading to the arrest of the person responsible. John Welsh of the Riverside County Animal Services says they have opened an investigation into this incident.
Welsh commended Zazueta’s lifesaving efforts.
“They are the voiceless these little puppies and kittens. And so when somebody takes matters into their own hands in a positive manner and gets an animal some help as it appears happened in this case, those folks should be applauded,” Welsh said.
“It happens everywhere it happens frequently and I think we need to start having a conversation about animal cruelty,” Zazueta said.
Stay with News Channel 3 for continuing coverage.
