In the latest example, Debra Jordan, a volunteer for the Mary S. Roberts Pet Adoption Center, came across a tied-up sack with a Chihuahua inside.
"It infuriates me, I mean bad enough that you dump them, but to do that to him, it's just beyond cruel," said Jordan. "There's something wrong with that person."
The dog was dumped at the end of a dirt road along Nandina and Cole avenues, not far from Jordan's home in Mead Valley. Fortunately, the dog, who she's now named Angel, is going to be OK.
"She's clean, she's happy, she's a sweet little girl," said Jordan. "How you can look at those eyes and stuff her in a sack like that, you've got to be totally heartless."
Angel will have to be spayed, but should be ready for adoption within a couple weeks.
Sadly, this isn't an isolated incident. According to Jordan, last year alone, she rescued 76 abandoned dogs all within a half-mile of her home.
"If I can't get them, I hear the coyotes getting them at night, and it just kills me," said Jordan.
Denise Perry, who runs the nonprofit Mary S. Roberts Pet Adoption Center in Riverside, says there are a number of other abandoned dogs like Angel looking for homes as well.
"We have a lot of interest, because people do react with emotion about something like this," said Perry.
As for Jordan, she hopes people will look at Angel's situation and think twice before abandoning unwanted pets.
"Animal Control as a last resort is better than dumping them out in the hills, thinking they're going to survive," she said. "They starve to death, the coyotes get them, other wild dogs get them, and it's just cruel to dump them."
