Dog Left to Die Outside Pet Shop

Chinese Cresteds are fancy dogs.

If you see one in a movie or on TV, it's usually there to signify that a character is mega-rich.

But there's nothing fancy about what happened to Bracha, who was found Sunday morning in a box, malnourished and dying, in front a pet store in a strip mall outside of Easton.

Actually, we may never know the dog's real name. "Bracha"—Hebrew for "blessing"—is just the name the Center For Animal Health and Welfare gave him during his short stay with one of the shelter's volunteers. The dog was discovered in a box outside the Petco on Route 248.

By 7 p.m. Sunday night, Bracha had died at the home of the volunteer who was fostering him, according to the Examiner.

The Examiner story notes Bracha was underweight (just 4 pounds, where a normal adult Chinese Crested would be 10-14 pounds), suffering from cataracts, congestive heart failure and anemia.

The Center's Wendy Benedict told WFMZ Bracha's condition was the result of "months of neglect."

Last year, the Animal Legal Defense Fund ranked Pennsylvania at number 17 on a list of states with the strongest animal cruelty laws.

High profile cases of animal cruelty in the Lehigh Valley last year included neglected horses, a dog dumped in a ditch and a dog shot to death by a neighbor. Also, a Bethlehem man was charged with raping a dog.