Surveillance cameras caught the moment a 2-year-old pit bull mix was abandoned in Tampa near the intersection of MacDill Avenue and Azeele Street.
A sedan drove up to Dr. Geoffrey Kwitko’s parking lot at 7:45 a.m. on Wednesday, according to CCTV footage. That’s when the driver is seen exiting the vehicle with the dog and leaving it there before driving away.
“By the time I came out, the car was gone, the dog was gone,” Kwitko added. “But Janeen just drove up and said she saw the dog walking down MacDill.” So I said, ‘Well, let’s go locate the dog’.”
The dog made it about a block, but it took an hour for Dr. Kwitko and coworker Janeen Ibrahim to make the undesired pit bull feel wanted once more.
“Every day, my confidence in humanity diminishes. “When you see stuff like that,” Kwitko explained.
“I felt awful,” Ibrahim confessed. “That is just an awful thing to do to an animal.”
The two drove the 60-pound pit bull mix to the Humane Society of Tampa Bay on Thursday. The pit bull is now known as Goldie because of her eye color.
“It felt really good because we could give this dog a new purpose,” Ibrahim added.
Sherry Silk, director of the Humane Society of Tampa Bay, reports an increase in the number of dogs being illegally abandoned or surrendered by families.
Also on Thursday, someone driving down I-275 noticed two dogs trapped in an aqueduct. They are half their ideal weight, and one of them is unable to stand.
“I can’t imagine being that insensitive to pets that you’ve had that you think it’s okay to do that,” Silk remarked. “It is never, ever okay to do that.”
The Humane Society believes Goldie’s owner let her go because she was being exploited as a breeder and no longer desired. She is in good health and will be available shortly.
Dr. Kwitko is speaking out in the hopes that no one else will do this and that the car will be recognized.
“Dropping it off in the middle of the street, the dog’s taking his chances,” Kwitko remarked with a laugh.
Abandoning an animal is a misdemeanor punishable by up to $5,000 in fines and perhaps imprisonment.
“This is a really sweet dog,” Ibrahim added. “[It was] quite afraid. Very sweet. Tender. Loving.”
A report has been submitted to Hillsborough County Animal Control.