Virginia Beach, Va. (WTKR) - Virginia Beach Animal Control Officers are looking for the person who tied three dogs to a pole in a neighborhood park and then abandoned them.
Officers say a concerned neighbor called police dispatchers Thursday afternoon after finding the dogs tied up near the parking lot of the Birchwood Malibu Park.
"They had just been left there. There was nobody around. Two of them were still tethered to a pole and one had broken it’s lead off the pole and was still hanging near the other two dogs," Animal Control Supervisor Meghan Conti told NewsChannel 3's Todd Corillo Monday.
Officers have been trying to capture the third dog but so far have been unsuccessful. They also haven't been able to find the owner of the dogs.
They believe the dogs are approximately nine-month old Beagle mixes.
"We’ve canvassed the neighborhood and the officers are still continuing to talk to people throughout the neighborhood to see if anybody remembers seeing anybody in the park or knows where the dogs are from," Conti explained.
"It’s a park kind of tucked back in the neighborhood. We think that it might be somebody near there that might know of the park and know how busy it is. Thinking if they left them there somebody would take them," she continued.
Two of the dogs are now in the care of the Virginia Beach Animal Care and Adoption Center.
"We’ve got a little bit of dry skin going on but we don’t feel like they were horribly neglected, just abandoned in a park so we are trying to give them a little bit of love and care and some socialization because they are very timid," Conti said.
The owner of the dogs could have turned the dogs over to Animal Control to be put up for adoption without penalty, but now could face charges when identified.
"As a city shelter, we offer the option to the public that if you have a pet that you can no longer care for, you don’t want, you can surrender that animal to animal control and there’s no financial penalty or charge for signing an animal over," Conti explained.
Anyone with information about the owner of the dogs is asked to call the Crime Line at 1-888-LOCK-U-UP.
