MIAMI-DADE COUNTY, Fla. – Workers at a southwest Miami-Dade animal clinic are taking care of a dog that was abandoned outside their building.
“She’s just a happy go lucky girl,” said Alicia Alaschavez with the Bravo Animal Clinic.
Alaschavez said a man in a hoodie walked in the clinic’s lobby Thursday afternoon, telling them he found a dog by a dumpster.
“He asked us if we could take the dog in and I said, unfortunately, we’re a clinic. But he can contact animal services,” said staff member Gloria Oquendo.
The man reportedly said Miami-Dade Animal Services told him they weren’t taking animals, and then walked out.
“And that was it. We didn’t think anything of it,” Alaschavez recalled.
3:30 p.m. report:
It wasn’t until later in the day that Alaschavez discovered an animal carrier in the parking lot, baking in the sun.
Surveillance video from the clinic shows the same man in a hoodie getting out of a grey car with the carrier and leaving it.
The dog, a female chihuahua mix, was examined and bathed.
“She was hot,” Alaschavez said.
M-DAS confirmed to Local 10 that they have been over capacity for about two years, but do prioritize sick or injured animals. A spokesperson said MDAS does provide supplies for anyone who is able to keep an animal temporarily.
Bravo staff said many animal rescue groups are also overwhelmed with abandoned animals.
“She’s staying with us for the time being - we’re trying to find her a home,” Oquendo said.
Alaschavez said although the unknown man left the dog in the hot sun, the situation could have been much worse.
“Thank God she was left here, and not out in the street or the woods to die,” she said.