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A pregnant pitbull was found dead in the ocean with a cinder block attached to its leg.Around 1:30 p.m. on Saturday, Orange County Sheriff's Department Harbor Patrol received a call from a boater who spotted a large dog floating in the water about a mile from the Newport Pier, reports the L.A. Times. Newport Beach animal control and a crime scene investigator found a cinder block tied around the animal's leg when they arrived to pull the body from the water, according to CBS LA. The boater who first spotted the dog described it as a pregnant pitbull with short brown hair, but the dog did not have an identification tag or microchip.
Authorities believe the dog had been underwater for about a week. Animal control officers are now investigating whether the dog was dead before being dumped in the water, though they tell CBS LA that they don't believe they'll be able to perform a necropsy because the dog's body was so severely decomposed.
"Someone had a plan and they went and got the cinder block and tied it to this poor animal's leg and threw it to the bottom of the ocean," Tracy Hughes of SoCal Animal Rescue (SCAR) tells CBS LA. "It wasn't an accident. Someone did this on purpose."
Hughes, who runs SCAR, explains that if someone could no longer care for the dog or afford a proper burial, rescue organizations like hers could have stepped in to help.