COCKE COUNTY, Tenn. — The Cocke County Sheriff's Office is looking for the person or people who abandoned two dogs on the side of the road on Thinwood Drive Wednesday night.
CJ Ball, the Cocke County Sheriff, posted on social media that deputies are searching for a small blue car with a spoiler. According to CCSO, the dog's skin was raw with scabs and matting and "appeared to have trouble with his back end moving around."
Cocke County animal control officials said calls to rescue animals are constant in the area.
Chewy and Titan were named by the animal rescue and Cocke County Animal Control Officer Monte Morse said they often respond to situations like these.
“All the time, it’s nonstop, somebody’s abandoned dogs dropped dogs off, it’s constant,” Morse said. “There’s no place to take animals to. People will call animal rescue here in the area and everybody’s just full and nobody’s really adopting anything.”
According to Morse, it’s a combination of things that led to this problem and one of the reasons is money.
“People are trying to move and do things and then they can’t take their pets with them and there’s no place to take them to so they figure they just drop it off somewhere,” he said. “It’s almost $30 a bag and it’s getting expensive to take care of dogs.”
Cocke County Animal Control tries to rescue on average 20 dogs per month, according to Morse.
Ball said people cannot surrender a dog in the area due to lack of space. This is why Cocke County works with a few organizations that help with the intake of abandoned animals.
As for Chewy and Titan, Ball said they patrolled the area to see if they could locate the blue car but did not find anything.
“The hardest thing is not being able to help every animal I come across,” Morse said. “We would like to find who dropped these dogs off, find out who they are so we can get them in custody and into court cause it is a crime just to drop off animals.”
Authorities are asking the public to help and call CCSO with any information that could help.
If anyone has information about the situation, they can contact CCSO by calling (423) 623-6004.