Dog seriously injured after found in trash compactor in Austin, owner claims
Dog found in trash compactor in Austin
Police are investigating after an Austin woman claims a dispute with two friends ended with her dog being found inside a trash compactor.
AUSTIN, Texas - Police are investigating after an Austin woman claims a dispute with two friends ended with her dog being found inside a trash compactor.
She believes the women are responsible for what happened to her dog.
The small dog survived, but the owner says she’s now facing the aftermath of a terrifying situation she believes was no accident.
The backstory:
For Autumn Mendoza, her Chihuahua named Yogi is more than a pet.
"He's lazy. He likes to eat. Oh my gosh. And he's just funny," said Autumn Mendoza, Yogi's mom.
The Austin native says the two have been inseparable for years, but last week, she almost lost him. Mendoza says she left Yogi with friends while celebrating her birthday, something she’d done before without problems.
"I left Yogi there with them because they watched him before," said Mendoza.
She says things took a turn when an argument escalated into a physical altercation with the other two women at a Northeast apartment complex on Loyola Lane.
"They just started like getting in my face and just being crazy. So, I told them to get out of my face and, the next thing you know, she pulled my hair and I just had to defend myself," said Mendoza.
Austin police said officers responded to the disturbance. They said multiple people were engaged in mutual combat. As a result, no charges of assault with injury will be investigated.
Afterward, Mendoza says she went home without Yogi and feared more confrontation.
Yogi (Credit: Autumn Mendoza)
The next day, her mother spotted a photo online that changed everything.
"I told my mom, I was like, I miss Yogi, I hope he's okay, and my mom got on Facebook and his picture was the first picture she saw in Austin, a lost and found pet," said Mendoza.
Yogi had been found and was taken to an emergency veterinary hospital. Mendoza was heartbroken at what she found next.
"We called the hospital. It said that he was in a trash compactor, and someone was compacting the trash. And they heard a dog crying, and they saw him, so they had to push the emergency stop button, and they rushed into the hospital," said Mendoza. "For it to happen personally to me, it's like, I just can't believe it. I'm in shock."
Mendoza picked Yogi up from the vet, and they are still working to figure out the extent of his injuries. She believes the altercation will have long-term impacts on him.
"When I walk away, he looks at me like I'm going to leave him forever. So, I just take him with me," said Mendoza.
Mendoza believes the people involved in the earlier altercation are responsible and says she wants them held accountable, but she says she's grateful to the person who heard Yogi’s cries and saved his life.
"Thank you, because I don't know what I would have done. I would've probably lost it. He's my baby. I don't have kids. This is my kid," said Mendoza.
What you can do:
A GoFundMe has been created to help pay for Yogi's emergency surgery.
What's next:
APD says detectives are looking into the animal cruelty case.
The Source: Information from interviews conducted by FOX 7 Austin's Jenna King