A shopping cart full of puppies was found beside a dumpster outside an animal shelter.

Animal advocates in Mississippi and Louisiana were alarmed Wednesday when an animal shelter worker found the abandoned shopping cart full of puppies by a dumpster outside the Concordia PAWS Shelter in Ferriday at about 5:15 a.m.

Fortunately, a PAWS staffer who begins her day early saw the man dump the puppies and leave. She immediately went to their rescue.

The worker took one of the eight puppies to a Natchez veterinarian for medical attention.

The puppies appear to be about two months old,  and all but one seem to be in decent health, said Dianne Watson of Concordia PAWS.

“We took one puppy to Miss-Lou Veterinary Clinic to be tested for Parvo. We have named her Molly, and she had a deep gouge in her neck and had other wounds around her head. They told us they are going to keep her overnight to treat her wounds,” Watson said.

Molly’s Parvo test was negative, but she does have coccidia and worms. Because she has them, the other puppies likely do as well, and will all be treated for those things.

“The puppy I took to the vet was tan and white with a sprinkling of dark brown on her face. She is beautiful. They all are beautiful puppies,” Watson said, adding some of the puppies have blue eyes.

While beautiful, the addition of these eight puppies brings the total to 24 under the care of Concordia PAWS.

“We just can’t stand any more traffic. We had a dog dumped here yesterday. We named her Abby. She has a deep gouge in her neck and the vet called to tell us that the wound is more serious than they thought. She’s in bad shape. The neck is all exposed,” Watson said.

“It takes a toll on all of us. How much more can we stand? It’s constant. We need prayer. People think they can dump dogs over our fence and it will be alright. It’s not. We have no room. And we have to treat them, which we do. I don’t know how, but we do,” she said.

The shopping cart puppies will be added to the list of adoptable puppies at PAWS.

“We have a procedure we go through. They will have their shots and we will care for them,” Watson said.