Four puppies who were abandoned in a filthy, plastic crate with no food or water by the road in Essex have died.
They were among 15 sick cockapoos, thought to be from two different litters, discovered by a passer-by on Monday evening near Basildon Crematorium in Pitsea.
The weak, whimpering animals were rushed to a vet, who was so shocked by their condition that they contacted the RSPCA.
Sadly, one puppy was dead on arrival and three others were so poorly they had to be put to sleep.
The remaining 11 animals who are thought to be from a puppy farm remain ill with diarrhoea and are currently being closely monitored.
The RSPCA has launched an investigation into the incident and inspectors believe the animals could be dumped ‘lockdown’ puppies.
Chloe Frost, from the animal charity, said: ‘It is so shocking that such a large number of puppies were dumped, especially as they were all so poorly.
‘They had all been dumped in a dirty crate with no food or water and in such hot temperatures too.
‘We are so thankful that they were found as now the remaining pups have a chance of survival.
‘We do not know at this stage if they came from a puppy farm and then abandoned when it was realised how poorly they were.
‘We also cannot rule out that they are the result of a demand for ‘lockdown’ puppies – and we are concerned about what will happen to more ‘lockdown puppies’ over the coming months.’
There was a huge surge in demand for dogs during lockdown as families made the most of spending more time at home.
However, the RSPCA is now concerned about a potential increase in abandoned puppies over the coming months as a result of puppies bought during the pandemic.
During lockdown last year, between March 23 and December 31, the RSPCA’s Find a Pet section of the website had 39,835,657 views compared to 23,681,542 in the same period the previous year – a spike of 68%.
The number of views to the charity’s pages about rehoming a dog surged 87% from 540,524 to 1,013,795 over the same period.
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