Mutilated dog found near Dumpster

The dog’s throat was cut, her paws were bound with rope, and her face had been set on fire. She was dead, lay wrapped in plastic and dumped unceremoniously next to a trash receptacle when Vickie McCauley stumbled upon her.

"This is torture worse than I've ever seen in my life," said McCauley. "And, I want whoever did this to know this is wrong! You can't go around doing things like this to animals."

McCauley called 311 as soon as she and her colleagues discovered the dog near the Dumpster at her work. But, she said that when the City came to investigate, they didn't even open the bag before determining the dog's owner had dumped it there once the dog died because they had nowhere else to put it.

That is when McCauley decided to do a little digging herself.

"I wasn't going to leave it," she said. "Whatever it was, I wasn't going to leave it until I investigated."

McCauley returned to the scene Monday night and unwrapped the bags. "It took me a few tries to get all of that off of her," she said, pointing to the heavy plastic bags and blanket that had been wrapped around the Pit Bull. "And, then I positioned her to where you can tell she had been spliced, because blood went everywhere."

The sight made McCauley vomit.

"If I think about what they did to her and she was alive," she said. "It makes me cry because it makes me so sad."

The Austin Police Department's Animal Cruelty unit hasn't yet determined this case as animal abuse. However, they have seen McCauley's pictures and have received a few tips from the plea for help McCauley posted on Craig's List.

While this case may never be solved, Dorinda Pulliam with the Town Lake Animal Center said McCauley made the right moves.

"If you even suspect animal neglect or abuse, we want you to report it," said Pulliam. "That is the only way we can stop this from happening."

Pulliam said the first step is to call 311.

According the the Austin Police Department, there have been 122 cases of reported animal cruelty in Austin since Jan. 1, 2008. Just in 2009, there have been 23 cases so far.

TLAC has classes on how to detect and report animal abuse, counting on citizens to help stop it before goes any further.

"We want people to treat it like any other crime," said Pulliam.

 As of Tuesday, the dog was still in the Dumpster.

"I was told Sanitation wouldn't come get her until Wednesday morning," said McCauley. "What a horrible way for any living being to die."