A pair of rescue puppies abandoned by their adopter, resulting in one puppy dead and another with a broken leg.

It's a complex animal abuse case that authorities are learning to investigate and even prosecute.

About three weeks ago, Yigo resident Karen Aguilar rescued Duke and Mila from the side of the road as she was afraid they would be run over. 

A woman who wanted both puppies reached out to her to take them in but as Aguilar was on her way to work this week.

“I passed by and I just saw a little black lump. I recognized the little stubby tail because Duke didn’t have a tail. He just had a stump,” said Aguilar.  

She discovered the male puppy lying on the road near the Yigo Fire Station. 

“I ran to him, picked him up and he let out a whimper. I don’t know how long he’d been there but it was raining and he got hit. His legs were mangled and his body was bloody. He was struggling to breathe,” added Aguilar. 

She reached out to the adopter who admitted she abandoned the puppies outside of a Yigo apartment just a day after taking them in. 

Duke was humanely euthanized to end his suffering at Guam Animals in Need. 

Meanwhile, his sister Mila was found with a broken leg. 

Still, Aguilar said Guam police 'refused' to allow her to file a report saying she had no proof. 

“They basically told me I had no case because it was a boonie dog and we didn’t have a contract stating that the dog was hers even though I have multiple messages which I’m sure you’ve seen circulating where she takes ownership of the dogs and she admits yes she abandoned them,” said Aguilar. “At this point I don’t know what to do. I think we need better and more clear laws on what constitutes animal abuse.”

Territorial Veterinarian Dr. Mariana Turner said Guam's animal cruelty laws are strong. 

The gap, she said, is in the enforcement and training. 

“The precinct that this issue went to where they reported it, there was some misinformation that went out internally. I was just talking to one of the GPD officers about that as well. So they’re trying to correct the gap in knowledge. And of course this training is a huge gap in the knowledge of what animal control officers know and what our GPD officers know,” said Turner. 

Police officers, animal control, gain staff and employees with the Attorney General’s Office learning to shore up that gap from the Humane World for Animals Expert Adam Parascandola. 

“The first part is understanding the law. What components of the law are on Guam. We do talk about the way animal cruelty is connected to other forms of violence, like violence against people, child abuse, domestic violence and other forms of violent crime. And then when we establish that, we get into how to investigate animal cruelty, what are the signs to look for,” said Parascandola.  

As to this case, he agrees it should be looked into.

“I would say that at the very least what you would hope to see is that the police department would go out and interview this adopter if she tells them the same thing that she abandoned, she decided she couldn’t keep them and she dumped these dogs, which is abandoning them, which is a violation of the law very clearly,” added Parascandola.  

Animal control is investigating the case.