Pet Owner Dumped Cats, Dog On Roadside After Shelter Didn't Take Them

A woman who was photographed dumping 10 cats and an elderly dog on the roadside in Ruskin, Florida, was reportedly found by the authorities Thursday.

Authorities told ABC Action News that the pet owner was found and they were planning to charge her with 11 counts of animal abandonment. It was, however, not known if the woman was arrested.

Critter Adoption and Rescue Effort, an animal shelter, said Wednesday that the woman came over to the shelter to surrender her pets Tuesday morning. However, they refused to accept the animals as the shelter was full. A while later, the unidentified woman was photographed dumping all the pets on the roadside.

Roger Mills, the investigating officer, said, “She didn’t know what to do and didn’t think it was illegal to abandon the animals. There’s always options. There’s hundreds of rescues out there. If you go online, people will come to you."

Officials said most of the pets the woman dumped were found and would be up for adoption. However, they were still in search for "a couple of cats and the elderly dog."

Speaking to ABC Action News, Sherry Silk, the chief executive officer of The Humane Society of Tampa Bay, said, "If you have a pet, you cannot dump them. Somebody should come forward and say something."

She added that cases of pet owners dumping animals on the roadside were on a rise in Hillsborough County. In one such case, someone tossed a four-week-old kitten out of a moving car just last week.

“I guess the woman that was on the sidewalk, she screamed. They got the kitten before it could get hit again,” Silk said, adding that a $6,000 reward was announced for those who find out who threw the kitten from the moving car.