LEWISTON — Police said the woman who left a dog at the Greater Androscoggin Humane Society parking lot and drove away Monday has been identified.
The society and Lewiston’s animal control officer searched for the yellow Labrador retriever mix and found it dead on a ramp to the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Bridge on Thursday morning. It had been struck by a vehicle.
The bridge is near the Strawberry Avenue animal shelter. The shelter had video footage of someone leaving the dog Monday night and driving away.
Police said they questioned the suspect and will forward the case to the District Attorney’s Office for review. They expect to file a formal criminal charge.
Later Friday, a woman claiming to be the suspect called Portland-based radio station Frank FM and said she dropped the dog off to protect her three children. The woman, said to be a 21-year-old single mother from Auburn, was not identified.
She told the radio station she was sorry the dog got hit, but, “My kids come first.”
Others who know the woman, however, questioned her sincerity, saying she had posted photos on Facebook with her infant child on top of the dog.
On the Police Department’s Facebook page, police reported receiving several tips and thanked the tipsters for the assistance and information.
On the Humane Society page, mourning for the animal was replaced Friday afternoon by anger for the person who left the dog behind.
“I hope this guy has enough of a conscience that this haunts him for the rest of his life,” one woman wrote.
“I don’t know how someone can be so heartless and rotten,” offered a second woman. “I hope they throw the book at him. More than that, I hope he lives the rest of his life with deep regret. The kind that turns your stomach and keeps you from sleeping at night. The kind you always carry with you. Forever. That’s the worst punishment I can think of. Though jail and fines are for sure warranted.”
By 3 p.m., the Humane Society post had been shared more than 1,000 times.
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