BAKERSFIELD, Calif. (KBAK/KBFX) — After a viral video showing a person abandoning dogs in a Bakersfield neighborhood last week, staff say that they hope the individual be held accountable.
On the afternoon of March 3, an employee from Lucky’s Crew Animal Shelter saw a Dodge truck leave two dogs on the sidewalk and try to drive away. She confronted the driver to take his dogs with him, but he drove away.
“It’s heartbreaking,” said Lucky’s Crew Animal Rescue General Manager, Kelly Gould. “They depend on you to be their world. And if you cannot hold on to your dogs, they depend on you to find a safe place for them to go.”
As the situation had unfolded, the dogs eventually ran to the care of the shelter worker. She then took them in so the Lucky’s Crew staff can assess the dogs.
“Once she saw the condition that the dogs were in, they were severely malnourished,” said Gould. “The male seemed to have some kind of dent or an injury to his eye. The fact that they came running right to her and knew that she was a safe place to go, instead of trying to chase the person that left and behind, spoke a lot. Once she calmed down a bit, and got hold of the rest of us. We contacted the authorities, and the next day, Animal Control came out to get them.”
With the employee’s recording, she turned to social media and relied on the community’s help to locate the individual.
“The hope was that number 1 awareness, because this happens daily, all over the county, all over there,” said Gould. “I mean, there’s hundreds of dogs on the streets as it is. We had hope that if anybody knew the person or had any information, they would turn that over to the authorities and help in the investigation.”
The community connected the suspect in the video with a former Bakersfield College employee. The College says they are aware of the video, and that the employee has not worked there since 2019.
Bakersfield College posted the statement on their social media page.
It said:
“Bakersfield College is aware of a video circulating online involving the abandonment of animals in a local neighborhood. Questions have been raised about a possible connection to a former Bakersfield College employee.”
“To clarify, the individual named in these posts has not been employed at Bakersfield College since 2019.”
“We appreciate those who have reached out with concerns and encourage anyone with information related to this incident to contact the appropriate authorities.”
The college did not release video relating to the statement.
With the uproar of displeasure from the community for this individual’s actions, Gould and her staff appreciates the community’s support but wants to allow the authorities to handle this situation.
“I would like to say, ‘please don’t.’ “If you have any kind of information on who it is, contact the authorities. Contact animal control. Let them handle the legal process. Don’t step up and be a vigilante on your own. That’s not doing anyone any favors, and it’s not doing any good for the animals.”
Those two abandoned dogs have successfully been relocated to Malinois and Dutch Shepard Rescue, a specific breed rescue, but Gould says that this is just one instance of the many dogs that can use a home.
“We’re all doing the best we can,” said Gould. “All these rescues, we can only do so much. We need people to step up; to adopt, to volunteer, donate. Just keep spreading the awareness, because these dogs, hundreds of other ones, are out there in the same situation. We need to help them too.”
According to Humane Animal Services, (CA Penal Code Section 597s) under Animal Abandonment: Anyone who willfully abandons an animal is guilty of a misdemeanor punishable by a fine of $1000 and up to 6 months in jail.
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