Published April
13, 2012
Associated Press
TOLEDO, Ohio – Six
bulldog-mix puppies stuffed into a suitcase and abandoned next to a trash bin
won't be homeless for long.
Hundreds of people
from around the country — some willing to camp out just to be first in line —
have contacted an animal shelter in hopes of adopting the month-old pups.
It will be a few
weeks before the puppies are ready for adoption so they're now doing just fine
at an undisclosed foster home, said John Dinon, director of the Toledo Area
Humane Society. He didn't want to reveal their whereabouts.
"As far as
I'm concerned, they're in witness protection," he said.
The man accused of
abandoning the three female and three male puppies appeared in court Friday and
pleaded not guilty to abandoning the animals. A judge said he would appoint a
public defender for Howard Davis of Toledo.
Authorities said a
luggage tag with Davis' contact information on the suitcase led them to him.
Passers-by had discovered the dogs last week in an alley soon after they were
dumped, authorities said.
Davis, 53, could
face jail time or a fine if he's convicted.
He would not
comment to media outlets after the hearing. A Humane Society officer said that
Davis told him that he had given the dogs to someone in Michigan and had not
abandoned them, Dinon said.
Even though many
of those who want to adopt the pups are from out of state, the shelter will
only give them to people who apply at its office and go through the normal
screening process "despite requests to put them on a plane and send them
all over," Dinon said.
The shelter might
announce a date when the pups will be available because there's so much
interest. A few people even want to camp out, said Dinon, who wasn't sure
whether police would allow that to happen.
"It's like
Rolling Stones tickets," he said.
Those who won't
get a shot at rescuing the pups should go to their own local shelter, Dinon
said. "There's no shortage of cute puppies," he said.