A five-year-old dog was left zipped inside a backpack on a city sidewalk in sub-zero temperatures, without food or water, and with no way to escape. Thankfully, the dog survived and is now recovering in the care of a local humane society. Being trapped in a backpack, exposed to extreme cold, deprived of water, and abandoned to die is a horrifying form of abuse that demands serious consequences.
Sign now to demand justice and ensure this kind of cruelty is never allowed to happen again.
Responding officers found the small mixed-breed Pomeranian on Sherman Street after receiving reports of an abandoned animal. The dog had been intentionally enclosed inside a backpack and left outside in freezing conditions that could have killed him within minutes. This was not an accident. This was a conscious decision that put an animal's life at immediate risk.
Animal cruelty like this does not happen in isolation. People who are capable of inflicting such suffering often pose ongoing risks to animals — and sometimes to others — if they are allowed to continue without intervention or accountability.
Sign the petition to join us in calling on the Albany authorities to ensure this case is fully prosecuted, and that sentencing includes a lifetime ban on animal ownership and mandatory mental health counseling.