Sick, Abused Puppy Left for Dead in Bag in NY

Authorities are looking for a man who dumped a badly malnourished 3-month-old puppy in a duffel bag on the steps of a Long Island shelter over the weekend. 

A worker at Bobbi and the Strays animal rescue in Freeport opened up the bag, which had been left outside the shelter Saturday, to find a shivering puppy inside. The dog was barely breathing.

"He was freezing, shaking and he wasn't even moving," Elyse D'Agostino, manager of the shelter, said. "He was just curled up in a little ball as if he was sleeping."

The pup, a male the shelter named Copper, was emaciated, severely dehydrated, barely able to stand and had an extremely low body temperature. D'Agostino said he had fresh bite marks all over him.

The Nassau district attorney's office said he may have been used as a bait dog in a dogfighting ring.

Authorities are reviewing surveillance footage that appears to show a man dropping the puppy off outside the shelter. They say they are looking to question him and anyone else with knowledge of the case.

Meanwhile, shelter workers say Copper is a ball of energy and will be a great pet once he is healthy enough to be adopted. He is about 15 pounds underweight, D'Agostino said, but he's getting better each day.

"He is delicious. He is so sweet," she said. "When he sees people, he gets excited. 

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