The Toledo Area Humane Society is investigating why a pit bull froze to death on the porch of a house in Toledo, Ohio.
Brown saw a second dog inside the house through a window. The dog was alive but malnourished and cold. Brown entered the house after obtaining a search warrant and rescued it.
The Blade contacted the owner of the dogs, 40-year-old Victor Vallejo Sr. He said the dog that died was a 3-year-old female, and the dog inside the house was a 4-year-old male. Both dogs are American Bullies, one of several kinds of dogs considered pit bulls.
“I wasn’t staying there, but I was going back and forth and feeding them. They had plenty of food and water,” he said. “I’ve been staying here and there at the moment. I kind of fell on some bad times.”
He told The Blade that he locked the dogs up inside and doesn’t know how the female got out. He also revealed that the utilities to the house were recently cut off.
Brown said that none of the dogs had food or water. The frozen dog appears healthy, despite freezing to death in a curled up posture. She seemed optimistic about the surviving dog.
“He looks to be pretty good,” Brown said. “He’s sweet. He was malnourished and dehydrated, but I think he’ll be fine.”
Vallejo told The Blade he paid a lot of money for the dogs and hoped to breed them.
He said dogs start to feel cold in their feet, ear tips, and eyes. He also said pets feel cold and windchill much the same way human beings do, even though the body temperature for dogs and cats is normally around 100 to 103 degrees.
“You just have to use common sense,” said Heaven, via The Blade. “You obviously want to watch the temperatures. You really have to be aware of how your animal is reacting”
He said that if pets appear too cold, they should be brought to an indoor heated area and dried off. They should also be warmed slowly and seen by a veterinarian if necessary.
