The couple, Gloria and Guillermo Reyes, went to have a closer look, and they saw a dog’s snout poking through a hole in the cardboard, and trying to chew through the plastic.

They immediately ripped open the box, and found a scared, weak golden retriever puppy inside.

“They were shocked,” Wood said. “It’s hard to comprehend how someone can consciously take a puppy and leave it to die intentionally like that.”

The Reyeses alerted their relative, Berni Gutierrez, and Gutierrez contacted Wood and asked for her help.