Middle Township Police have given an update on a situation concerning a family that is living in a Rio Grande area motel while they look for a place to live that will accept a dog.

In the meantime, the family has been keeping their dog in their car, which is parked in the motel parking lot. Middle Township Police posted on Facebook that they had previously seized the dog and filed animal cruelty charges, which are currently pending.

The dog was returned to the owner by the court. The owner’s position is the dog is cared for and walked frequently by the family in addition to being close to their motel room.

According to police, Saturday there was a social media post that talked about this dog being seen in the car which received quite a bit of attention, including people responding from out of state that this should not be allowed and demanding that police seize the dog.

Middle Township Police say they were contacted by the family who reported receiving threats about their treatment of the dog since the social media post appeared.

The Middle Township Police Department has been in contact with the Cape May County Prosecutor’s Office, which has an Assistant Prosecutor who is specially trained in Animal Cruelty cases. The position of the Prosecutor is there is no legal basis to seize the dog. This was confirmed with numerous conversations with the Cape May County Prosecutor’s Office on Saturday, April 9th.

Middle Township Police Department say they have responded to every call in relation to this situation and taken all the proper steps within the law.

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