Starving chihuahua found in Lawrence dumpster

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By Jeff Fish, Globe Correspondent

A starving 12-year-old chihuahua was found in a Lawrence dumpster and brought to an animal adoption center in Methuen earlier this month, the Massachusetts Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals said today.

Brian Adams/MSPCA

Gandhi the chihuahua

MSPCA officials said they believed someone threw the dog out as if he were trash in the dumpster at a construction site on Oxford Street.

"The dumpster that he was found in was too high for him to have climbed into, leading us to believe that a person put him in there as if he was garbage," Mike Keiley, director of the MSPCA's Noble Family Animal Care and Adoption Center, said in a statement.

The dog, dubbed Gandhi by MSPCA staff, was found malnourished, dehydrated, and covered in fleas. He is being treated and has gained about a pound of “much needed weight,” said Keiley.

Abandonment is considered animal cruelty, a crime that is subject to a fine of up to $2,500 and/or up to five years in prison, according to the statement.

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