DeKalb animal shelter nursing starving dog ‘tossed’ into parking lot

DeKalb County animal welfare workers are caring for an emaciated dog found last week amid a surge in intake at the shelter in recent weeks.

DeKalb County animal welfare workers are caring for an emaciated dog found last week amid a surge in intake at the shelter in recent weeks.

Last Wednesday, a UPS driver saw someone “toss” an emaciated dog from a Nissan Xterra into the parking lot of a now-shuttered DeKalb County Animal Services facility, according to LifeLine Animal Project.

A spokeswoman for LifeLine, the nonprofit that runs the county’s animal shelter, said two women saw the abandoned dog in the Memorial Drive parking lot. They brought him to a LifeLine facility in Avondale Estates, where workers began caring for him “around the clock.”

This care was given by a staff that is already having a busy summer. The county's main animal shelter was full last week and officials were asking for people to come forward to foster dogs.

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When the abandoned dog came in, he couldn’t stand or lift his head. Within a day, shelter workers had him walking and wagging his tail, LifeLine said in a news release.

Workers named him Benjamin.

It wasn’t immediately clear if police were investigating the case.

LifeLine took Benjamin’s story as an opportunity to sound the alarm again about the overflowing shelter.

“We are in crisis mode,” the agency said in the release. “We are urgently seeking emergency fosters and adopters.”

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Channel 2's Lauren Pozen reports.