Emotions ran high this Friday 10 October 2025 in Villiers-sous-Mortagne. Around 10.30pm, a local woman approached a recycling bin after hearing faint cries. Inside, ten puppies had just been discovered, thrown there just hours after their birth. The woman immediately alerted the fire brigade, who came to rescue them before notifying the mayor.
The little ones were taken to the Kik Déclic pound in Les Aulneaux (Sarthe), as reported by Ouest France. "When we collected them, they were suffering from hypothermia," explains the facility's manager. As the container was almost empty, they had fallen about 5 feet.
Intensive care to save the puppies
According to the pound, the puppies were no more than three days old. Their umbilical cords were still visible and they weighed barely 1.1 pounds. An on-call vet in Saint-Julien-sur-Sarthe was contacted urgently to provide the milk needed for their feeding. The newborns were bottle-fed every two hours, a painstaking and precise task that allowed them to survive.
Today, all ten little ones are out of danger. They'll stay at the pound until they're two months old before being transferred to partner shelters, in the hope of finding adoptive homes.
The mayor of Villiers-sous-Mortagne filed a complaint on Monday 13 October. The gendarmerie confirmed they've opened an investigation for abandoning domestic animals, an offence punishable by severe penalties. Investigators are now trying to identify the person responsible for this act.
