Little hope for finding Chile's highway hero dog

Updated: 2008-12-10 09:59

SANTIAGO, Chile -- Chilean officials say they have lost hope of finding a dog whose attempted rescue of an injured animal inspired worldwide admiration.

Jorge Rivas, operations manager for Vespucio Norte Highway in Santiago, said police and highway workers had searched for the dog several times, "but not any more."

He said too much time has passed since March 23, when a surveillance camera captured images of the apparently homeless dog pulling the body of another, injured dog through busy traffic to the relative safety of a freeway median strip. The other dog, which had been hit by vehicles, died.

Rivas said earlier reports that the incident happened on Dec. 4 were based on confusion with the date the image was first shown on local television.

Hundreds of thousands of people viewed the surveillance images on Web sites and television shows and Rivas said his agency received 15 calls over the weekend from people offering to adopt the dog.

Luis Serey, 59, a taxi driver who often uses the freeway, often says the video "was impressive. This dog is a hero. I hope he gets a new life, a home. He totally deserves it."

Broadcast of the images came on the heels of an animal welfare scandal in the Chilean capital, where officials raided an Animal Protection Society accused of mistreating and killing dogs and cats in its care. Four employees of the society face charges of animal abuse.

THE ORIGINAL STORY...

SANTIAGO -- Chileans have a new hero: an apparently homeless dog that pulled the body of another dog through traffic off a busy highway. A surveillance camera on a Santiago freeway captured images of a dog trotting past speeding cars to pull the lifeless body of the other canine, which had been run over by a vehicle, away from traffic and onto the median strip.

The scene was broadcast by Chilean television stations and then posted on Web sites such as YouTube.com (The Gaffer- I won't link to the video it's too sad! Makes me choke up and get misty eyed...), and hundreds of thousands of people had viewed versions of it by Monday.

Highway crews removed both the dead and live dogs from the median strip of the Vespucio Norte Highway shortly after the Dec. 4 incident. But the rescuer dog ran away.

Authorities say images of the rescue prompted some people to call and offer to adopt the dog, but neither highway workers nor a television crew could find the animal.