A family was on their way to a visit when out of nowhere they saw a car open the door and abandon their pup on the highway. They didn’t know what to do with her since they had recently adopted another pup from a shelter, but they knew they couldn’t leave the dog there to die.
In a video shared Sunday on TikTok under the username kaliandfuriends, the Belgian shepherd, who now goes by the name Kali, can be seen running for her life on the highway.
“A car dumped her in the middle of the highway while we were on our way to visit family. My dad pulled over to the side before my mom got out to call her over,” the poster said.
“The car that had dumped her was long gone by this point. We didn’t know what to do with another dog since we had just adopted from a shelter the week before, but we knew we couldn’t leave her there.”
As soon as the family drove into town, they got the dog a harness and a collar. Still not knowing what to do with her, they took her home that night and gave her a name.
“To us leaving her at a shelter was not an option,” the poster said. “Took her to the vet the next day…. And well the rest is history!”
A caption shared with the clip reads: “Will never understand why ppl dump animals like this.”
Each year, 6.3 million pets enter U.S. shelters, which is an average of 17,260 a day, according to the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. The number of dogs and cats taken in by pet shelters hit 46,807 during January 2023, an increase of 1,744 compared with January 2022, 24Petwatch’s Shelter Watch Report found.
The most common reasons for dog surrenders include age, allergies, behavioral issues, cleanup, cost, moving, new pets and shedding, according to Michigan’s Humane Society of Macomb.
Around 920,000 surrendered animals are euthanized every year. Shelters are striving to minimize euthanasia rates by promoting adoption campaigns, spaying and neutering programs and behavior rehabilitation.
The video quickly went viral and has so far received over 1.9 million views and 283,400 likes.
Newsweek reached out to kaliandfuriends for comment via TikTok comments and could not verify the details of the case.
Do you have funny and adorable videos or pictures of your pet you want to share? Send them to [email protected] with some details about your best friend and they could appear in our Pet of the Week lineup.
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Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
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