Security guard finds decomposing dog in cage at shopping center

MEMPHIS, Tenn. — Memphis animal control officers were called to a Raleigh shopping center Monday after a security guard found a decomposing dog inside a kennel in the back of the parking lot.

Steve Palo said he was working at a business in the Austin Peay Plaza along Austin Peay Sunday when he made the gruesome discovery. Palo said he was feeding some stray puppies behind Lit Junior when he noticed the kennel.

“It was horrible because it was a little cashier girl who also loves puppies,” Palo said. “We walked toward the back of the store, and she said, ‘Oh my God!’ because we saw a cage. And she’s got better eyesight than I do, and she saw the dog and said, ‘Oh my God.”

Palo said pillows had been placed in the kennel with the dog. He said it appeared the dog had been dead for a couple of months.

“The weird thing is why no one saw it because you can actually see the cage from the parking lot,” Palo said. I worked there last month. I didn’t even think to go back there.”

Memphis Animal Services contacted the city’s sanitation department to pick up the carcass.

An animal control officer on the scene said that because of the dog’s condition, it was impossible to tell if the dog had been abandoned. It is possible the dog was dead when it was dumped on the lot.

“As I looked a little closer, I saw a leash. So, they took the leash off and dropped it right in front of the cage, and they just abandoned the poor thing,” Palo said. “How do you do something like that?”

Palo said the puppies and their mother are living in a wooded area behind the lot. The animal control officer spotted the mamma dog but could not capture her.

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