Kelli Bender is the Pets Editor at PEOPLE. She has been working at PEOPLE since 2013. Her work has previously appeared on MTV, The Frisky, Vice, and Best Friends Magazine.
Keep an eye out for Dawson. The curious rescue canine managed to escape a West Virginia rescue after hours and is still missing and without a home.
According to Huntington Cabell Wayne Animal Shelter in Huntington, W.V., the rescue realized on Monday, Jan. 5, that the brindle-colored dog had escaped the facility by opening his cage and unlocking the shelter’s front door.
“This is NOT AI, though we wish it was,” the shelter captioned a Facebook video of Dawson’s disappearing act. “This guy is much smarter than he looks. Not only did he get out of his locked kennel, he managed to UNLOCK THE FRONT DOOR and leave!”
In the footage, the large dog uses his paws to open his kennel, then walks to the shelter’s front door and unlocks it with his mouth. After turning the lock with his teeth and tongue, Dawson pushes open the front door and walks out into the night.
Unfortunately, while the shelter has received a few leads on Dawson’s location, the dog is still missing. Huntington Cabell Wayne Animal Shelter asks anyone who thinks they have seen the 40-pound dog to call 304-696-5551 or 304-544-5891.
The shelter revealed that it has heard from several people who have seen its posts about Dawson’s escape, who have opted insult the organization instead of helping it.
“This is really hard to write,” Huntington Cabell Wayne Animal Shelter shared in a Jan. 7 Facebook update. “The videos of Dawson escaping the shelter have gotten more than 4 million views, been shared about 85,000 times, and gotten 8,000 comments.”
“Many of those comments are saying that it’s AI, or that it was staged. That’s not true,” the facility added. “Many of those comments blame our shelter for being a terrible place with poor conditions. That’s not true.”
“We’re trying,” Huntington Cabell Wayne Animal Shelter wrote, noting that the facility fights to be a no-kill shelter, which means it often struggles with overcrowding.
“We get thousands of strays and surrenders every year. Thousands,” the shelter shared. “We had an amazing adoption event just a week ago where adoption fees were waived, and we found homes for 184 animals… and the number of dogs we took right back in was almost as many as the ones we adopted out.”
The shelter concluded its post by asking for support as it searches for Dawson and continues to serve the animals in its care.
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“Imagine how much better things would be if even half of the people who shared the video donated just $1….Yes, please keep sharing it. The more people who see the video, the better our chances of finding him,” the organization wrote. “But, at the very least, more people will learn about how overcrowded animal shelters are, how underfunded, and how much need there is for their support.”
According to the fundraiser to support Huntington Cabell Wayne Animal Shelter and the search for Dawson, once the dog is found, he will be placed with a “seasoned” dog owner.
