KRGV.com

SOUTH OF DONNA - A man dropping off trash at a dump site in a secluded area on Mile 4 1/2 South of Donna discovered a dog on the brink of death.

Eric Jimenez spotted the dog inside the site, snapped some pictures and posted them on the Internet.

"I came here to throw some trash away with my dad," Jimenez said. "I'm a photographer, so I saw a dog here that looked really bad, really skinny and I took a picture of everything."

Jimenez took the dog to Recycled Rovers and Friends, a shelter in Donna that cares for abandoned dogs.

"He was covered in bugs, looked like he hadn't eaten in some time," said Dezi Cantu, director of Recycled Rovers and Friends.

He said the dog was starving.

"He was scavenging. After he finally did have a bowel movement he had what looked like some rags, even little pieces of bone and plastic and all sorts of things were in there," Cantu said.

The dog not only was malnourished, it also was injured. Cantu said a veterinarian will check the animal this weekend.

Teresa Cokeland saw the photos of the animal on Facebook and went to the dump site to take water and food for the dog. It was then that CHANNEL 5 NEWS discovered there were more dogs roaming at the site.

Cokeland and others now are trying to save them. No one seems to know how the animals got there.

As for the dog Jimenez rescued, he was named Takota.

"He was so friendly. ... We found that the name Takota is a Sioux word for friend of everyone," Cantu said.

Saturday is International Homeless Animal Day and many rescue groups will meet at Hugh Ramsey Park in Harlingen, 1001 S. Loop 499, from 7 to 9 p.m. For more information on the gathering, call (956) 427-8873.