Veterinary official confirms that puppies were put down

PHOTOGRAPHER: Steven Cook

Two puppies found Tuesday morning in a milk crate on Seventh Avenue where another puppy had already died were not given names later by the veterinarians trying to save them.

Until an abandoned animal is stabilized, a vet tech said then, it’s considered bad luck to give them names.

All the luck in the world, and the hopes from those who heard their story Tuesday, though, couldn’t save them, an official with the clinic that had treated them confirmed this morning.

The puppies who appeared malnourished, had worms and later tested positive for the Parvo virus, deteriorated into Tuesday evening, when they were then euthanized, Jennifer Riehlman, a veterinary assistant with the Hernas Veterinary Clinic confirmed this morning.

“We had all hoped for a happy ending,” Riehlman said.

Reporter Steve Cook filed an earlier story on the abandoned puppies. Click HERE.

The three puppies, the two who survived Tuesday morning and the one who died, were discovered at about 8 a.m. that morning by a resident of Seventh Avenue. They were left in a milk crate.

The woman, Kim Beck, fetched a towel for the surviving puppies to warm them, then called police. Beck then checked on them early Tuesday evening, learning their fate.

City police were looking into the abandonment Tuesday as a possible animal cruelty case, spokesman Lt. Mark McCracken said then. There were no signs of trauma on the puppy, but whoever abandoned them could face charges under Buster’s Law and could even face a felony, he said.