MANATEE COUNTY, Fla. (WFLA) – A helpless dog was abandoned in a dumpster, left for dead. Thankfully it was rescued by garbage men who saw it in the nick of time.     

Just before 3:45 on Monday afternoon, a Waste Management truck arrived at a Speedway on State Road 64 near Upper Manatee River Road/Lakewood Ranch Boulevard.

It was a typical job on the route, just empty out these dumpsters and leave, but one piece of garbage stood out.

“I saw a little head pop up. So that’s when I ran around and I saw the puppy in there and I yelled at Ahriel, I said- ‘Ahriel, there’s a dog in that dumpster over there,” said Daniel Cormier with Waste Management.

She is a six-month old female pit bull mix. She had been simply been discarded, along with her crate.

The dog was frightened and very thirsty. The men believe she may have been there for hours.

“For anyone to do something like that, to me, that’s a sin ‘cuz you could do that to a person, you have no care for life,” said Ahriel Jones, Sr. with Waste Management.

The dog did not bark and followed commands. The men could’ve easily missed her.

“Once she gets in the truck and we start backing it, that could’ve been the end of it,” said Cormier.

The pit bull was not micro-chipped, but it is in good health and is recovering at Manatee County Animal Services. These garbage men are always on the lookout for suspicious activity but they never could’ve imagined this.

“That’s a life that was in there and the dog was so beautiful,” said Jones. “What type of human being are you? …what made you do what you did?”

Animal abandonment is a crime punishable by a first degree misdemeanor.

“Its horrible what people do,” said Cormier. “I’m really glad that we saw her and we were able to save her.”  

Anyone with information on the dog is asked to call Animal Services at 941-742-5933.