Pooch Rescued After Several Close Calls On I-95
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- The dog that spent the better part of the Monday evening and Tuesday morning rush hours darting through Interstate 95 traffic is now safely in Philadelphia's Animal Control Shelter.
The female German Shepherd was first spotted on traffic cameras Monday night, as cars slowed down and swerved to avoid hitting her. One man got out of his car to try and catch the dog, but the dog ran off only to reappear Tuesday morning.
Around six o'clock Tuesday morning, on the same stretch of highway, police again started getting reports of a dog on the highway. Chopper 3's HD camera followed the dog as it zigzagged back and forth across four lanes of traffic, nearly getting hit more than once.
Finally, around 9 a.m., the dog wandered off the highway and into Philadelphia's Tacony neighborhood. She ran right by some construction workers on State Road.
"Wasn't anybody's pet. No tags or anything," said worker Brian Czapracki. She "definitely was tired. She'd been running."
Only Eyewitness News cameras were there as police chased the dog block by block through Tacony, eventually cornering her in a fenced in lot near Bleigh Avenue and Wissinoming Street.
A police officer used a Taser on the dog to get her under control.
"The dog was about to attack one of the officers," said Captain Francis Bachmayer. "We did not want any injuries."
Police took the dog to the city's animal control shelter in Feltonville, where she is undergoing several tests.
"The early word is that she appears she will be all right medically," said Wendy Marano, spokesperson for the Pennsylvania SPCA, which runs the shelter. "She is an older animal, and she looks like she's been fending for herself on the streets for a while, so she's a little skittish."
Marano says several people have called asking to adopt the dog, but she's not available just yet.
Shelter workers, however, did give the dog a new name: Northbound. That's for her fondness for the northbound lanes of I-95.
For more information on Northbound or on animal adoptions in general, see pspca.org.
Reported by Mark Abrams, KYW Newsradio 1060; Ben Simmoneau, CBS3
