A member of the public made the heartbreaking discovery last Wednesday, August 23 on a canal by Aire Valley Marina in Leeds. RSPCA animal rescue officer (ARO) Emmeline Myall attended and was saddened to see two adult dogs – a male and female – and three puppies, who were around four weeks old, shoved inside the zipped-up Sports Direct bag.
There was also a brick inside the bag, leading the RSPCA to believe that the family of dogs were deliberately drowned.
ARO Emmeline said: “It is absolutely awful to think what these poor dogs went through. They didn’t seem like in in poor health well being which makes us, very sadly, consider that they had been deliberately drowned. The truth that there have been 5 dogs on this one bag leads us to consider that somebody was attempting to do away with them multi functional go.
“This is an terrible act of animal cruelty and we’re urging anybody who has any info to get in contact with us so we are able to discover out what occurred to those poor dogs.”
People with info can contact the RSPCA’s appeals line on 0300 123 8018, quoting reference 01139689. The unhappy incident comes as this week the charity launched figures which confirmed studies about cruelty to dogs elevated by 7 per cent in 2022, in comparison with 2021 – with intentional hurt to dogs on the rise too.
