9 Puppies Left In Box On Side Of Nevada County Road, 2 Dead

NEVADA COUNTY (CBS13) - Puppies were abandoned and left to die on the side of a Nevada County road, until someone spotted the box.

Two of the dogs didn't survive but seven others did. One look at the little guys and you'll have the same reaction as Cherly Wicks.

"Oh my goodness, they are cute. Oh, they are adorable," said Wicks.

She runs Sammy's Friends Animal Shelter in Grass Valley. On Monday, a man brought the puppies in after finding them on the side of the road.

"We get a lot of lousy people do terrible things to animals," said Wicks.

Wicks says someone tossed nine of them in a box and left them on a road north of Nevada City. Two crawled out and were killed after a car ran them over.

The surviving puppies are in good health, recovering at a foster home.

"They just gobbled up the food we gave them. So I don't know how long it had been since they ate. But, they're not in too bad of shape. So, don't think they were on the road a long time," said Wicks.

Wicks says she knows tough financial times mean some people can't care for their animals, but she struggles to guess why someone would leave helpless puppies for dead.

"I think people don't bring them here because they don't want to be asked any questions. They're embarrassed, mistake number one is their dog wasn't spayed so they are in this position," she said.

The dogs are up for adoption and Wicks hopes they find loving homes soon, and that justice for them is not far behind.

"I would hope that some kind of charges would be filed, some kind of animal cruelty," Wicks said.

A $500 reward is being offered to anyone who knows who abandoned the puppies.