Owners got rid of their dog simply because it was 'too old'

Choco is a 13-year-old Chihuahua mix who was dropped off at the Lancaster Animal Care Center in Los Angeles by his owners for being “too old.”

A video that the animal center uploaded to its Facebook page portrayed the little dog sitting on his bed while a member of the staff was petting him. There was a sad and miserable look on his eyes.

As The Dodo reported, Choco was left in late August, and given the fact that he was certainly old, the shelter staff chose to keep him in the medical ward to give him the care he needed.

That decision had its pros and cons, though. While it was a much more quiet and peaceful area, nobody could see him, which was why he had little-to-no chances to be adopted.

Thankfully for Choco, photographer Rita Earl Blackwell visited the Lancaster Animal Care Center and met the dog. The woman revealed that he was one of the four dogs that were in the medical ward that day.

She added that the thing that surprised her the most about Choco was that he was quiet, sweet, and had “very worried eyes.”

Rita asked one of the members of the staff about what was medically wrong with him, but she told her that he was just too old, which was the reason why his owners took them there.

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“So he didn’t come in with a broken bone or anything physically wrong with him. He was just too old for them, so they left him behind at the shelter, which is always very sad because he’s in a strange place without his family that he’s known,” added Rita.

The photographer recorded a couple of videos and took several pictures to post them on Facebook to help with the adoption process. Thankfully, the founder of A Purposeful Rescue Hillary Rosen saw the posts and pulled him from the shelter a couple of days later.

Choco was taken to the veterinary to get a surgery done on a growth near his groin. After that, they changed his name to Toast, and he is expected to go into a foster home.

A similar situation took place in Baltimore. A woman saw a Bulldog tied to a tree in the cold next to a note saying that he needed a new home and someone who loved him. Duke, the dog, was taken to a shelter where an Army Specialist adopted him days later.