(_tar0_)
“This is for your 11th birthday. It’s what you wanted,” was written on the outside of an Atlanta-bound Priority Mail box in a Minneapolis post office. It caught postal workers’ attention when it started moving on its own and making loud panting sounds. They got permission to open the box and found… a four-month old poodle-schnauzer mix puppy who was very, very happy to be free. The woman who mailed the box was charged with animal cruelty, then went back to the post office to try to get a refund for the $22 in postage she paid.
The woman has not explained to authorities why she mailed the dog, how she thought it would reach its destination, or whether she realized she would be traumatizing the recipient with a dead puppy in a box. A Minneapolis police officer told the Star-Tribune:
If you don’t identify [a package] so that it can be handled properly, it goes into the cargo hold of an airplane. It gets 40 below in those cargo planes that get up 40,000 feet. And there was no food or water. Puppies can’t go for long periods without food or water.
The Priority Mail would have arrived in at least two days, but the dog had zero chance of survival: the box’s air holes had been taped over.
The woman has not stated whether she wants the puppy back or not. He is in the custody of local animal control, and will go up for adoption if the woman who mailed him loses her appeal of the animal cruelty charges, or doesn’t want him back.
If not for postal clerks, puppy would have been DOA [Star-Tribune] (Thanks, Bettina!)
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What the hell is WRONG with people …?!?
I know! Seriously, no bubble wrap?
I would have used packing peanuts myself….would soak up the urine
Use the ‘eco-friendly’ cornstarch ones, and you don’t have to worry about the puppy eating them!
But they would melt when the puppy peed. I would recommend those air bags I get from Amazon shipping.
I never thought of styrofoam as being particularly absorbent. At least, my styrofoam cups don’t get soggy.
I suspect that there has to be something actually mentally wrong with this woman.
Yeah I agree. From the article, it seems like she really has no idea that she did something wrong. The tone of the circumstances leads me to think she may be mentally challenged or ill.
Some people literally – and I mean literally – do not actually think about the consequences of their actions. Or don’t care.
And that’s why we have laws. To protect the rest of us from these people.
I thought that the holy goddess of objectivism, Ayn Rand, taught us that consequences are for the other guy to deal with? So what if the puppy died. It’s the puppy’s fault for being too stupid to open the box. Duh.
Seriously though, this is why we have laws. So true.
Really? You went with an attack on Objectivism? That’s what you had to contribute?
/Got nothing, but at least I admit it.
It’s a little out of left field, but still true. Ayn Rand idolized an axe murderer, far more harmful than this horrible woman who put profits over a dog’s safety.
Working computer support I’ve learned that:
People are stupid.
There’s no other way to describe it. You can’t fix stupid either.
+1
Mailing Nermal always worked on Garfield…
That was to Abu Dhabi. They have much nicer postal services.
Plenty
WTF?! This bitch should be taped in a box and put in a cargo hold. See how long she lives. What an asshole.
+1
Mailing chickens is legal as long as they are 2 weeks or younger.
Well, it DOES seem safer than shipping it with Delta…
Or at the very least, AS safe…
Well played sir, well played.
How did her children survive long enough to produce offspring?
Who says the 11 year old was her offspring?
Or the offspring of her offspring?
If your parents never had children, chances are, you won’t either.
I am assuming she has children, or intends to have children who may have children.
And I pray for them.
This is for your 11th birthday. It’s what you wanted
Now there is going to be one disappointed 11 year-old in Atlanta, who was hoping to get a dead dog for his/her birthday.
+1. Way to go, USPS, crushing the dreams of children.
Maybe it was for a bad kid.
Dammit guys, I thought we weren’t gonna do any more harrowing dead dog stories!
Casey Casem?
But this dog isn’t dead…
It could have been, if not for paranoid postal workers…
LOL. I wouldn’t exactly describe suspicion of a moving, panting package as being “paranoid.”e
Man, that’s ruff
And so, we proceed to mark new territory in wordplay…
Fur sure
It certainly gave ME paws.
Maybe she thought it was a BOXER. Boxer! Get it? put it in a box…
I can just picture this police officer becoming increasingly exasperated as he tries to explain all the things wrong with this. “It’s 40 below… puppies need food and water… puppies need oxygen… puppies need… Jesus, what’s wrong with her!”
Anybody think of Aunt Bethany from Christmas Vacation? “She wrapped up her damn cat!”
AHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!
I was imagining her more like that crazy woman from the McCain rally; the one who kept saying she was afraid of Obama because he was a Muslim.
On a somewhat unrelated note:
Schnoodles (Poodle-Schnauzer Cross) are cute as puppies, but I find them to be kinda ugly once they’ve fully grown. Maybe that’s just a personal opinion; you tell me:
Puppy
Adult Dog
I agree with you. The puppy looks like a stuffed animal, but the dog is all stretched out, and doesn’t look nearly as cute and floofy.
I was going to say the same thing, although the sheen on even the adult’s coat reminds me strongly of a stuffed dog I used to have.
We inherited a schnoodle (it outlived its owners) about 8 years ago. It died last summer at the ripe old age of 20.
The little critters of nature, they don’t know that they’re ugly.
Happy Happy, Joy Joy, Happy Happy, Joy Joy, Happy Happy, Joy Joy, Happy Happy, Joy Joy
I told you I’d shoot, but you didn’t believe me! WHY DIDN’T YOU BELIEVE ME?!?!
Cuteness is an evolved survival strategy.
Babies are adorable. If they weren’t, would adults put up with the chewing and the screaming and the work that goes along with caring for them? Let’s face it, we’re hardwired to see cute so that we will want to do the work of caring for them. Guys doubly so.
My beagle is still so cute. I lucked out. Great breed!
I find that puppies are always more adorable than the adult dog. It’s what makes them so popular. Same with kittens.
“The woman has not stated whether she wants the puppy back or not. “
How could this even be an option? Maybe some nice bunch of humans could get together, throw some money in a pot, and find a safe way to ship puppy to the little 11-year old?
I’m looking at you, readers.
I like puppies, but not that much.
No, because this woman would get the message that anything she needs to do, do it poorly and the kindness of strangers will come to her aid.
Next she’ll put a postage stamp on a car and drive it through the post office window as a gift to a 17 year old niece.
That’s what I thought. All you bleeding heart animal lovers out there can’t pull a few dollars out your tight ass wallets and donate some time to give some puppy a home for an 11 year old kids birthday.
But I bet I’d get a bunch of y’all willing “adopt” a teenage prostitute.
I’d pay to ship it to myself, not to the 11-year-old kid. The puppy will find a good home when it’s adopted.
good deal. I am sure someone will adopt this little guy, too.
So how come you aren’t whipping out your checkbook?
As an animal rescuer, I feel that giving someone a pet as a present is asking for trouble. Sure, the kid may have wanted a puppy for his/her birthday, but what about the parents who would end up paying for the food, vet’s visits, etc??? There must be a reason the parents aren’t getting this kid a puppy themselves.
So that’s why **I’m** not willing to kick in some cash to ship this pup to the 11 year old. Why aren’t you?
So how come*I’m* not whipping out my checkbook?
I’m not *that* big an animal lover. My challenge was to all the pet enthusiasts who freak out completely every time some animal is harmed. Pets are not people too. Not that I don’t feel for the animals, I do. But I spend my charity cash on humans, some of which might be forced to eat “Whiskers” or “Spot” if I didn’t. We’ve all got it pretty easy here in the USA, even the poorest of us, and the concept of “eat or be eaten” is foreign to way too many.
The only challenge I see is the one that calls on us to determine just how big a douche-bag you are, and after those posts it’s not a very difficult challenge at all. You’re a ginormous douche-bag.
And *I* am a douchebag?
The sad fact, dickhead, is we spend more money per capita on for crap like gourmet pet food, sweaters, and reindeer antlers for our pets than most world of the world’s people earn in a year. Those same animals are considered dinner in other parts of the world. That’s the ugly facts, that’s reality. I don’t make these things up. Have you really never left your comfort zone?
So, while you can turn away a hungry child in favor of a new coat for your snookums, I can not. And I know, I am probably saving a puppy from being dinner somewhere. Of course, puppy will probably starve to death a week later, but that’s reality. Cold, hard, reality. And that, dickhead, is something you could use a dose of.
I may be a lot of things – cheap, old and grumpy – but if you are suggesting that I am a heartless douchbag, then I will claim this “douchbag” moniker you have bestowed upon me and wear it proudly.
Dickhead.
Proven point!
^^ Bestest post.
I don’t recall ‘freakin out’ lately.
Maybe I should.
Who in their right mind would give that dog back to that woman? She’s either mentally ill or casually cruel, and either way is a danger to herself and others.
Besides, she’s probably too cheap to spring for the return postage!
Keep on looking, my Unocal stock has not paid off as well this year.
I’m at a loss. For the last 2 days, these puppy stories…. wow. I think my poor dog is sick of me from the extra attention I’ve been giving him.
That, and the fact of these subzero temps across the country already have me sad for the homeless critters and outdoor critters of clueless individuals out there…
I don’t think I can take any more! :sob:
Jesus christ… right after the cold execution of sled dogs in front of the rest of the pack? Right after the kitten freezing on a tarmac?
Is there no end to human stupidity??
Christ, I could ask my 2 year old niece if doggies like being in closed tupperware containers and even she would point out the need for AIR!
There is an already-spoiled little pug at my house who is going to wonder why I’m bringing him home so many new toys and treats today.
Wait, what kitten?
http://consumerist.com/2011/01/hairless-kitten-freezes-to-death-after-trip-in-delta-cargo-hold.html
I apologize in advance for this: http://con.st/10015329
“then went back to the post office to try to get a refund for the $22 in postage she paid.”
Well, true she didn’t get what she paid for. Perhaps this would help her out: http://consumerist.com/2011/01/where-to-complain-about-the-postal-service.html
So many things I keep finding wrong with this woman.
There should be a ‘Gross Stupidity’ clause in the USPS refund policy. If there isn’t, there ought to be.
I wonder if she should actually get a refund here – they didn’t deliver her package
That doesn’t explain her level of stupidity though.
She failed to properly disclose the contents, so her refund is voided.
She needed to learn from Ogden Edsel – Dead Puppies Aren’t Much Fun!
I just noticed that was one of the article tags. Well played, Consumerist.
So is “happy endings”. I can’t figure that one out.
They opened the package before shipping it on a plane, and thus the puppy didn’t die?
Not a happy ending if you hate puppies, but otherwise a whole lot better than the alternative.
“happy endings” perhaps because an 11 year old child did not receive a dead puppy in a box for their 11th birthday would be my guess…
So do they just open every moving, panting box?
The article says they got permission, which says to me that the USPS has policies in place for ‘suspicious parcels’.
I, for one, would enjoy opening every moving, panting box.
“The woman has not explained to authorities why she mailed the dog, how she thought it would reach its destination, or whether she realized she would be traumatizing the recipient with a dead puppy in a box.”
Sounds like she didn’t do much thinking throughout this whole process. Either that or she is evil and was trying to tramautize the kid.
Sounds like she’s mentally ill, actually. The fact that living things need oxygen and should not be tossed around is one of those common sense lessons about compassion that we learn when we’re young. Shipping a puppy in a box is not like forgetting your keys when you walk out the door. And the fact that she returned to the post office to attempt to get a refund after she was charged with animal cruelty indicates to me that she’s pretty out of touch with both reality and the gravity of the charges against her.
Either that, or she could just be mind-numbingly stupid. I mean, she DID have the presence of mind to try for a refund from the USPS.
These days, I never underestimate the stupidity of the general populace. YouTube has taught me much in that regard.
That level of stupidity arguably is in itself a mental illness.
While I think this is absolutely terrible and this woman should be charged with a felony, what about all the people who ship chicks (of the chicken variety) through the mail to suburbanites who want to raise a few chickens? The whole strategy there is to ship in bulk because so many of them will die, but it’s not considered animal cruelty because chickens aren’t as cute.
Well, responsible people make sure the birds are in transit as little as possible, so most of them opt for overnight shipping, the boxes are marked very clearly, and I think some states have regulations that live animals can only go on flights that are specially prepared to take live cargo.
No, they ship a set minimum i.e. 15 so that they can keep each other warm: http://www.porterturkeys.com/poultorderinginfo.htm
ive bought as few as 3 from ideal poultry. they put in heat pads though.
I received a turtle in the mail. It can only be shipped during certain months, was packaged with a heat pack and the packaged stated on the outside “contains live animals”. My turtle arrived kind of traumatized (i dont know I would do that again), but alive and he’s happily living in his aquarium now (this was 8 years ago).
It isn’t considered animal cruelty either when they throw the male chicks into a grinder right after they are hatched.
Who cares if she wants the puppy back or not? She should never be able have any animals ever again!
Dead puppies aren’t much fun.
What a fucking monster. Here’s to hoping that they throw the book at you, bitch.
I would like to hear what her reasoning was (we probably won’t), so I’ll stick with this statement. I honestly can’t think of any good reason that she would do something like this.
Were I the prosecutor, I’d be aiming more for involuntary commitment than criminal charges. She’s either a functional sociopath or so stupid as to be the poster girl for too mentally incompetent to be out in society. Either way, she’s not safe to be around other people, especially children like the one she mailed the puppy to. Prison doesn’t cure either condition, but a psychiatric hospital at least has a chance to.
so here’s a question, she had to go to the post office to mail the box. Didn’t the p.o. worker notice that the box was breathing? They probably threw the box, didn’t anyone notice that the box was barking or moving before even leaving the post office?
I’m not blaming the post office at all. I think people like this woman are of a special moronic breed and I hope she doesn’t procreate.
It’s unfortunate that denying total morons the “right” to breed is considered violating a moron’s civil rights.
It’s all a plot to circumvent Darwin and muddy the gene pool.
Yep. I really, really wish they would institute some kind of basic, common sense test you have to pass before being allowed to have children. If you can’t take care of your own life, how can you possibly be expected to provide for a child?
On the other hand, some people DO get a reality check from realizing they’re responsible for a little baby and turn their lives around. Such a test being required prior to becoming a parent would filter out the people shocked into sanity along with the people impervious to sanity.
My guess is she used one of the automated postal centers….
I take that back. From TFA:
“Champion paid $22 to send the black poodle-Schnauzer mix puppy named Guess to Georgia via priority mail, said Thompson Ojoyeyi, supervisor at the Loring Station post office. The worker who accepted the package asked all the standard questions: Any perishables, liquids, hazardous materials?
Champion said no, but then she cautioned postal workers to “be careful, be careful” as they handled the box because “it was so delicate,” Ojoyeyi said.
On the outside of the package Champion wrote “This is for your 11th birthday. It’s what you wanted,” he said. She also told the clerk that if sounds came from the package, not to worry, it just contained a toy robot, Ojoyeyi added.”
That seals the deal, then. She knew what she was doing was wrong because she lied about it. She knew that the postal office wouldn’t accept a dog in a box.
Y’know, those Pets Overnight commercials from Grand Theft Auto were SATIRE, right?
Does she not know that dead puppies aren’t much fun?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eMqTat4dUoY&feature=related
Of course that’s not the actual dog. A Shiba wouldn’t have been dumb enough to get in the box in the first place. Or failing that would have busted out quite quickly on their own.
indeed.
After reading TFA, a sick thought popped into my head. Maybe she actually wanted the puppy DOA…some sort of sick revenge thing…
Seriously, what is wrong with people? Ugh. I hope she is banned from ever having animals again.
“Puppies can’t go for long periods without food or water.”
You learn something new every day. Oh wait, that’s just common sense.
Or air. She taped over the air holes.
Why haven’t idiots been bred out of the population? Do they fulfill an evolutionary niche?
Modern civilization acts as a buffer between individuals and the consequences of possessing counter-survival traits or making bad decisions. The more civilized we get, the thicker the buffer becomes. What once acted as a safety net in case of a bad harvest year or an honest accident beyond anyone’s control, now makes it so all but the stupidest people will survive the consequences of their stupidity.
As an example, in earlier days, being unable to plan your resource budget resulted in running out of food, fuel or shelter (or some combination of the three) and dying. Now we have assistance programs that prevent such things. Some people do genuinely need such charity through no fault of their own (due to a house fire caused by a lightning strike, for example), while others are so stupid they don’t realize that if they don’t have food for the full month, they won’t eat for the full month. But our civilization preserves the wellbeing of both types of people.
Part of my theory of why polar nations seem to be generally more prosperous than tropical nations is that more of the stupid people freeze to death.
people send animals through the mail all the time. i dont think its illegal as long as its properly identified.
WTFingFF
Euthanize her PLEASE!!!
Oh look Mommy, Auntie sent me a puppy ragdoll but it smells.
“On the outside of the package Champion wrote “This is for your 11th birthday. It’s what you wanted,” he said. She also told the clerk that if sounds came from the package, not to worry, it just contained a toy robot, Ojoyeyi added.”
Okay, so she lied to the postal worker. She knew exactly what she was doing, and that it was wrong and potentially dangerous. I hope the consequences for her are many.
So, this time, when the postal worker went postal on the puppy, it was a good thing.
Grandmothers do the craziest things.
For fuck’s sake, DON’T GIVE HER THE PUPPY BACK. Appeal or no appeal! God I hate people who do shit like this. I just want to take them out and leave them in a box in a snowbank. See how they like it.
“”This is for your 11th birthday. It’s what you wanted,”
Not a lot of thought went into this gift, eh? This woman has shit for brains.
Sorry, but she must die.
Strap her to the table and get the IV started.
No whining, no due process, it was her choice.
Cruelty to animals = your forfeit your life immediately.
Stuff her into a too-small cardboard box, carefully punch air holes then just as carefully tape over them. Then mail her to the morgue. If she arrives alive, let her off with a warning. If not, problem solved.
These kind of people really need to be prevented from breeding…and I am not talking about breeding puppies either. Talk about polluting the gene pool….
Is it any wonder, really, when we blithely treat farmed animals so abysmally? Why are people so horrified at a puppy being treated in this manner but not a pig? When we, as a society, think nothing of breeding and slaughtering and eating billions of animals, most of whom are still babies when they are killed, why do we fail to understand the complete disconnect and disregard so many people have for animals as a whole?
Mail a puppy? It is not any different than mailing live chicks from breeding facilities to factory farms or shipping baby pigs from “finishing” barns to slaughterhouses, in all extremes of weather, deprivation, and discomfort. Our society does this to all sorts of animals by the millions, every day. Is it wrong? Of course, it is. No matter who the being is.
When animals are finally granted their rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of their own form of happiness–and humans quit viewing them as “things” or commodities for profit and gain–well then, maybe, just maybe we’ll see a decrease in these “pet” animal-abuse stories.
Somebody needs some serious pyschiatric/neurological evaluation.
Reminds me of an idiot and his girlfriend my roommate know who make me sick as all hell. They had a mother cat who had eight kittens. What did they do when they went out one afternoon? Bundle all eight kittens into a tiny carrier and left them without food and water.
Six kittens died because of their stupidity. Two kittens and the mother survived the ordeal. We had the idiot’s sister, who was blessed with intelligence, compassion, and common sense, bring all three to our house from theirs in Iowa. The trip was long and the mother cat a bit stressed out, but otherwise ok.
We kept one kitten (who looks like this*). The other kitten and the mother were sent to an animal shelter in our area that does not euthanize its cats. As of the last time we checked, they had not been adopted. We made it clear that if the cats were not adopted we would take them back before the shelter sent them to any other facility, since the other facilities do euthanize the cats.
*In case the hyperlink doesn’t work, the picture of the cat in question is at http://www1.istockphoto.com/file_thumbview_approve/4123775/2/istockphoto_4123775_kitten_with_striking_blue_eyes.jpg
Sounds like he lady is just crazy. But guys, come on. It is just a dog. We eat animals. This is not the beginning of armageddon.
So did she get the $22 back or not?
Actually, that $22 is the only “consumer” issue I see here. Maybe she can enlist the help of consumerist to get the money back for the service she did not receive.
For those of you that take things I say a little to seriously: /s
prescription drugs………anyone? or mentally challenged?
Backyard breeders are the worst.
Well, technically puppy mills are the worst, but these rank amateur slimeballs are second and the people who buy from them are pretty bad as well.
Ugh…. Someone needs to sterilize this woman with a soldering iron.