It was just another routine day of inspecting shipping containers at the Port of Houston for U.S. Coast Guard Officer Ryan McMahon when he and his team thought they heard barking coming from inside one of the thousands of containers They surrounded them.
“Oh, it’s getting scratched, man,” one of the inspectors said in a video they recorded Wednesday morning as the team looked at the container, stacked about 25 feet in the air.
A crane was used to lower him to the ground and out came a very sweet and friendly dog.
“As soon as we opened it, we could see the little dog’s face peeking out. She was there, as if she knew we were going to be there to open the door for her. And she just wasn’t scared or anything. She seemed happy more than anything, to be out of that dark space and in the arms of people who were going to take care of her,” McMahon, a petty officer second class, told The Associated Press on Friday.
Coast Guard officials would later determine that the canine, since nicknamed Connie the Container Dog, had been trapped inside for at least eight days, without food or water.
Officers heard barking and scratching sounds coming from inside one of the stacked shipping containers. AP
She was a little dirty and “definitely pretty thin,” McMahon said.
McMahon and the three other inspectors took Connie to an animal shelter in Pasadena, a Houston suburb, where they examined her.
A rescue group, Forever Changed Animal Rescue, has taken her in and is working to get her healthy and ready for adoption.
Coast Guard officials would later determine that the canine, since nicknamed Connie the Container Dog, had been trapped inside for at least eight days, without food or water. AP
Coast Guard officials aren’t sure where the container came from, but inside were junked vehicles that were likely being shipped overseas to be sold as parts.
“So based on that, they think the dog was most likely in a junkyard, in a car. And that’s how they accidentally put it in the container,” said Guard spokeswoman Petty Officer Corinne Zilnicki.
McMahon said he is grateful that he and his team were in the right place at the right time to hear Connie bark and prevent the container from being placed on a cargo ship.
The team thought they heard barking coming from inside one of the thousands of containers surrounding them at the Port of Houston. TANNEN MAURY/EPA-EFE/Shutterstoc
They typically conduct inspections once a week throughout the Port of Houston, and on Wednesday they were at the port’s Bayport Container Terminal, which likely has more than 10,000 containers, he said.
“It would take at least another week to get where I was going (on a freighter) and two weeks without food or water. I don’t think he would have made it,” McMahon said.
Forever Changed Animal Rescue thanked “all the amazing people involved in this rescue and saving Connie’s life.”
The rescue group said in a Facebook post that Connie was slightly underweight, tested positive for heartworm disease and would receive treatment.
“We will also do a full workup to make sure you get all the care you need and deserve,” the group said.
The inspectors had thought about adopting Connie, but it wasn’t the right time for any of them.
“We know that with all of this she is going to a good home where she is loved and cared for,” McMahon said.
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Source: vtt.edu.vn