Back in 1987, we found a very young pup abandoned at a rest stop near Goliad, Texas. He was cowering under a bench at the time... we took him back with us to San Antonio, and fairly quickly found a home for him (a co-worker). He appeared to be a Doberman/Great Dane mix... he grew to a huge size and turned out to be a wonderful pet for my co-worker's kids. Sweetest temperament and never heard him bark once.
It's because people are 1. Cruel and don't care or 2. Incredibly stupid.
People think that they can release an animal into the wild (domesticated dog or a house cat) and it'll be just fine, because it's an animal, right?
I was talking to a lady a few months ago and she told me that when her family moved, they couldn't take their beloved cat, so they dropped the cat off at the shelter.
She was shocked when I informed her that shelters can hold an animal for only a very short time before they are put down.
I am in a rural area as well. In the last three weeks a mama dog and her 4 pups dropped off AND in a separate incident 3 more pups from another litter. That is a lot of dogs to feed, although three of us are taking care of them (in addition to our own dogs), that’s lots of kibble. One of my silver tongued neighbors is going to the vet in town and wheedle a deal for shots and worming. And maybe throw in a discount spay deal for the mama dog.
Hopefully that will make them a tad more adoptable. They are all pretty good looking pups, but there are no vacancies at the no-kill shelter for that many dogs.
I hate people that dump out pets, for whatever reason.
The people (and I use that term loosely) in the original story best hope that there is no truth in the old adage...you reap what you sow.