Dog abandoned with nothing but cage in Barnegat woods

BARNEGAT — A $1,000 reward is being offered for information about a dog left in the woods on Monday.

The young Siberian husky had broken out of the crate and was running around it when it was spotted off West Bay Avenue near a gun club, according to John Bergmann, the executive director of the Popcorn Park Zoo, where the dog was brought by police and the animal control officer.

The staff at the zoo named the dog Ginger after examining it and giving it the shots.

"She is an incredibly sweet, friendly, happy dog. She is full of energy and life, and she loves people and is so forgiving," Bergmann said.

The reward is being offered for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the individual responsible.

"We can't imagine what goes through someone's mind when they commit such an act of cruelty toward a helpless animal. How someone could lock this dog in a crate, leave her in a rural, wooded area, and turn their back on her and walk away is beyond us," Bergmann said.

Ginger will eventually be put up for adoption when her stray-hold ends.

The zoo in the Forked River section of Lacey has taken in several abused animals this fall, including a kitten named Pumpkin that was shot with a pellet gun in Newark in October.

A 6-month-old kitten named Cinnamon was left in a carrier next to garbage cans ready for collection in Ocean Township in September.

A husky left tied to a fence in a Roselle backyard in November after its owners moved to Georgia was also brought to the zoo.

The zoo is accepting donations to its ResQ fund to help with the care of Ginger and its other animals at ahscares.org.

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