A female spaniel was found on the side of a road mourning her dead puppies in Midville, Lincolnshire.
The mother and her pups were found by Paul Skinner, who was out riding his bike. He was quite a long way from the main road when he found them, he told the Daily Mail.
He described the mother dog as having tears in her eyes as she rested her head on top of a bag.
Skinner initially believed that the bag contained a dead bird. To his surprise, inside of the bag were her four dead puppies.
“I could not believe anybody could be so devoid of humanity to do something like this,” Skinner told the Daily Mail.
When he attempted to take the mother away from her puppies, she resisted, reports the Independent.
Skinner alerted the RSPCA to this discovery, and they have launched an investigation into the incident.
The puppies were taken with some hope that they could be resuscitated. Unfortunately, that was unsuccessful.
After examining the puppies, some vets believe that they might have been alive when they were first dumped on the side of the road. However, they cannot say with certainty.
The Fen Bank Greyhound Sanctuary and the police were also called.
“We don’t know whether the puppies were stillborn or whether they died because of the cold,” RSPCA inspector Becky Harper told the Daily Mail.
The mother dog, named Carly by the RSPCA, had a microchip, but this only led them to the original breeder.
So far, police have not been able to identify who left the dogs on the roadside.
“We want to hear from anyone who recognizes Carly or the fish and chip shop bag the puppies were in; it is quite distinctive,” Harper said.
