Dog Dumped In Trash Bag Adopted By Long Island Family

BROOKLYN, NY — The dog found stuffed in a garbage bag with his mouth taped shut near a Brooklyn highway now spends his times lounging outside after being adopted by a Long Island family.

The 10- to 12-year-old shepherd mix, renamed St. Vincent by rescuers, was adopted by the Shea family of Garden City last week after a rescue group waded through hundreds of applications to find him a home, NY1 first reported.

"Vincent will be smothered with unconditional love and companionship for the rest of his years," the rescue group the New York Bully Crew wrote on Facebook.

"He strengthens the soul. He personifies the will to live and succeed. May his future shine so bright that it blinds the ones that tried to darken his path."

His new owners launched an Instagram account for the dog, which they renamed Chenz, and has been posting pictures of him relaxing in their backyard and hanging out with the family's other pooch.

The photos are a stark difference from how rescuers found St. Vincent last year.

A passer-by spotted a garbage bad moving in Highland Park, near the Jackie Robinson Parkway, in East New York in December and heard an animal struggling to breathe.

The good Samaritan called police who cut the bag open and found St. Vincent inside covered in his own urine, according to police and the New York Bully Crew. St. Vincent was unable to move his legs and likely would've died that night if he wasn't found, vets said.

Police contacted the Bully Crew who got volunteers to take St. Vincent to VERG-South in Flatbush and then to its Gowanus facility. Vets there feared the dog would never walk again but he recovered weeks later and walked out on his own.

Despite the horrific ordeal, vets called him a "gentle giant" who never snapped during treatment and he quickly made friends with another dog at his rescue home.

Image: Nicholas Rizzi/Patch