The image was taken by Nicole Hubbard, an animal control officer from South Carolina, who spotted the dog carrier attached to a car driving down Interstate 95 in Georgia.
According to Hubbard, who spoke to the blog Pet360.com, locking an animal inside a crate on a hot day with temperatures in the mid-90s without access to water constituted animal abuse in her jurisdiction.
The woman said that the pup, who appeared to be a white Beagle mix weighing about 20lbs, also did not have enough room in the box to move around or even turn.
Hubbard and her boyfriend were returning home from a vacation in Florida when they spied a Dodge Durango SUV with North Carolina license plates doing 70mph on I-95 with an open dog carrier tethered to a cargo holder.
The crate was tied with a bungee cord and a nylon strap, and the cargo carrier had no protective ramp,Yahoo! Shine reported. To make matters worse, the container was positioned directly behind the exhaust pipe.
Having no jurisdiction in Georgia, Hubbard decided to alert the state highway patrol and was told over the phone that an officer will be dispatched to stop the SUV. After passing two more exits, she called a second time.
However, it was not until Hubbard and the driver of the Dodge crossed into South Carolina more than an hour and a half later that a local highway patrol officer pulled over the SUV with the dog crate.
It remains unknown if the owner of the Dodge Durango was issued a fine over the treatment of the pet.
Pet360 tried to verify that something was done to protect this poor puppy for the rest of the journey with the South Carolina Highway Patrol, who told us that calls on I-95 would be passed off to local law enforcement. The Ridgeland Police Department had no record of a stop or any citations issued to this white Dodge Durango with North Carolina plates.
The story has drawn more than 2,500 comments, with most users expressing outrage at the unidentified SUV driver, who apparently did not care enough about the pet to place it inside the car for the long drive.
(Daily Mail - Aug 13 2013)
