ORANGE COUNTY, Texas — A strange sight led to a disturbing discovery and now, investigators are working to learn who dumped multiple dead dogs near a private road close to Mauriceville.
“This is wrong,” Kathleen McNally said. “Animals can't speak for themselves.”
Kathleen McNally was driving by Texla Road in Orange County Sunday afternoon when a large number of buzzards caught her attention.
“I was on my way to work Sunday afternoon,” McNally said. “I drove by and saw some buzzards. Usually, a few buzzards isn't a big deal, but when you see hundreds of buzzards, you wonder what’s going on.”
To her, the number of birds suggested that something was wrong. McNally went to investigate.
“I turned around and came back up here and the buzzards flew off,” McNally said. “When I came up here, there was just a pile of dogs.”
McNally found nine dead dogs near a private road in Orange County.
“It made me very angry,” McNally said. “I'm an animal lover, and I think this is wrong."
Following the disturbing discovery, she took action in hopes that her efforts would help find the person responsible.
“It made me very angry, so I made a post so I could find out what to do about it,” McNally said. “It's just ridiculous. This is wrong, and as you can see, there are more bones out here like more dumpings.”
(Editor's note: 12News saw the pictures that surfaced on social media and decided not to show pictures of the dogs due to the nature of the images.)
In addition to making the post, McNally also called the Orange County Sheriff’s Office and now, investigators are asking for help. The dogs were left in a rural area, meaning it is unlikely any cameras caught what took place.
Law enforcement is asking anyone who may know anything about the case to come forward with information.
“It's real early in the investigation at this point,” Rhett Forsythe, livestock corporal for Orange County, said. “How long they have been there, it's hard to tell. How they got there, different things like that to try and identify them.”
Forsythe believes the case will be a hard one to solve.
“It's disgusting” Forsythe said. “That is not a way to dispose of them if they passed naturally. It's inhumane for them to just leave them out for the elements.”
Anyone who has a pet that went missing is encouraged to call the Orange County Sheriffs' Office for an opportunity to identify their lost dog.
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