A video that shows a woman rescuing a stray dog found lying alone in a Wendy's drive-thru has gone viral.
The video was posted to TikTok last week by Misfit Angels Rescue, a Detroit-based dog rescue. Already, the post has amassed more than 1.8 million views, 296,000 likes and thousands of comments, while highlighting Detroit's ongoing stray dog problem.
At the beginning of the video, the dog can be seen lying on a blanket in a patch of grass, which is partially covered in snow.
"Sooo [sic] many cars were driving past her/ignoring her," read the video's text overlay as the woman, who recorded the video from her car, inched closer to the pup.
"Opened my car door and she came right up wagging her tail, then got scared so I picked her up," the text overlay continued.
Photos included in the video show the dog lying down on the backseat of the woman's car. At the end of the video, she feeds the stray some chicken and announces via the text overlay that she's found a foster home for the dog.
Sadly, Detroit has struggled with a stray dog problem for years.
Between 2016 and mid-2019, more than 10,113 strays were taken off the streets by Detroit Animal Care and Control, the Detriot Free Press reported.
"The city does not have an accurate count of how many stray dogs there actually are in the city," the paper said; however, multiple reports in 2013 claimed that there were as many as 50,000 stray dogs loose in the city.
Of course, experts later told USA Today that this figure wasn't accurate. Still, Daniel "Hush" Carlisle, co-founder and executive director of Detroit Dog Rescue, told the paper: "I know for a fact that there [are] thousands."
The Michigan Humane Society (MHS) stated on its website that it "cares for more than 5,000 of the city's stray animals each year," adding that its officers' field "10,000 calls a year regarding animals in abusive, or neglectful situations or matters of imminent danger."
In the event that someone comes across a stray animal, MHS said they should secure the animal, check for ID tags and post about it online. Should a pet appear to be dangerous, MHS recommended that individuals call animal control services for help.
Many of Misfit Angels Rescue's viewers were upset to read that the drive-thru's other customers did nothing to help the dog.
"The amount of people that have passed her throughout the day[...]makes me lose hope in humanity," wrote DeGrandchamp Jay Bea.
"Omg..makes me angry how many hundreds of [people] saw her and did nothing! Thank you for helping her," added Ali Johnson.
