Dog Desperately Chases Car After He's Abandoned On Side Of Road

Oct 29, 2020 by apost team

Last year, California local Stephen Sage Silver witnessed an individual shoving and kicking a dog before driving away. Troubled by the abandonment, Silver pulled out his phone to record the incident and posted it online. 

Silver's video shows a man kicking and shoving the dog as the dog, seemingly confused, tried to play with him. The man then walks away from the dog, who tries to follow him, then gets behind the wheel and drives off, leaving the pet behind. 

As he drives off, the dog is seen running after his owner, even getting close to getting hit by another car. 

"[...]no, that's your dog man," Silver is heard saying in the video. "This guy is dumping his dog right here."

According to the Daily Mail, the video was uploaded to Facebook with the caption:

"These people were hitting this dog in the face when I first approached them. They then abandoned the dog after the male tried to get into a physical altercation with me. As he drove off he was yelling: 'It's your dog not mine.'"

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After the video went viral, Kern County Animal Services opened an investigation into the incident and eventually tracked down the man shown abandoning the dog in the video, identified as Danny Powell. According to KGET, however, the video doesn't show the full story. 

“Everyone that knows me knows that I like animals and I’m not going to do that to one,” Powell told the news outlet. 

Powell claims that the dog, which is a labrador mix, was never his in the first place. He had simply found the dog on the street and fed it but, when he tried to drive away, the dog followed him. 

“We were driving along lake Ming behind the camp up there and we saw a stray dog up by the gates, and we stopped to see what it was doing,” he recalled.

 “It looked like somebody had dropped it off. So we fed it a little peanut butter thing, and [then[ the dog started following us, jumping on the car, acting all excited. I felt bad because it was a good dog,” Powell continued. 

That's when Powell got out of his car once more in a final attempt to get rid of the dog. 

Meanwhile, the pup was picked up by the Kern County Animal Services and, just a week later, was adopted by Richard McDonald.

According to Bakerfield.com, Mcdonald adopted the lab mix, named Anakin by the Animal Service workers, as a Valentine's surprise for his wife, Patty. She had been looking for a dog "with a story" to adopt after shepherd-collie mix Lady died of cancer the year before. 

"I don't think Patty will sleep tonight," McDonald told the publication the day he went to pick the dog up. "She is so excited."

He also said he and his wife would probably be changing the dog's name. "My wife is a huge Detroit Tigers fan," he said. "Michigan State, Detroit Lions. She is from Michigan. So the dog might be named 'Tiger.' But we'll have to see."

Whether she remains Anakin or gets a new name, we're just happy the pup has a new loving home. 

Have you ever adopted a pet after hearing a heartbreaking story of abandonment? What was your experience like? Tell us your story in the comments below, and don't forget to pass this along to your friends and family!