Destiny Gomez rescues dog dumped on Long Beach, California road by unknown driver as pet dog desperately tried jumping back in car and even running after owner after animal was abandoned.
A dog abandoned by its owner on the side of a Long Beach, California road has found a new home after a delivery driver who happened to witness the ‘horrifying’ incident taped it and shared it online.
According to Destiny Gomez, 24, a woman who takes it upon herself to find homes for stray pets by chance saw the video the delivery driver posted online, with Gomez in turn reaching out to the individual.
‘When I watched that video, it broke my heart. I could not stop crying. I could not keep the dog out of my mind,’ Gomez told NBC Los Angeles.
‘The owner is literally leaving him… look! Oh my God!’
In the video filmed by the delivery driver, a Bull Terrier mix is seen futilely jumping onto a shut car window repeatedly of a black Lexus sedan with no tags. Moments later the owner (believed to be a female) drives off leaving the frightened pet hopelessly chasing after its owner.
In the video, the delivery driver is heard saying: ‘The owner is literally leaving him… look! Oh my God. Look, poor dog. The dog is just being left. Get your dog!’
The dog attempted to keep up with the owner’s car down multiple different streets in the area where the animal was abandoned but to no avail.
After posting the video to Instagram to appeal to her vast network of dog loving followers, she got a tip telling her where the dog might be.
‘We also got coordinates of streets like where someone saw him, so they were like, “Can you go there?”’ Gomez told NBC Los Angeles in an interview.
Amateur sleuths following Gomez’s Instagram account led Gomez’s boyfriend to the neighborhood where the dog was dumped. Hours later, he found him safe and sound.
Lexus driver remains unaccounted
After making sure the dog was safe, fed and groomed, Gomez renamed him Chico and found him a foster parent in nearby Palos Verdes.
Now Gomez is trying to find Chico a ‘forever home.’
‘People have been DM’ing me saying that they want him and they can pick him up today but I really want to go through a rescue first,’ Gomez said.
To date, the driver who abandoned the animal has yet to be located.
According to California Penal Law, anyone who willfully abandons an animal is guilty of a misdemeanor punishable by a fine of $1000 and up to 6 months in jail.
