MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) — They’re calling it the parcel puppy. A Minneapolis woman is charged with animal cruelty after police say she tried to send a puppy through the mail.

The poodle-mixed pup is being held temporarily at the animal control office in Minneapolis but still belongs to the woman who allegedly tried to mail it — 39-year-old Stacey Champion.

“Clearly there wasn’t a whole lot of thought that went into this,” said Sgt. Angela Dodge with the Minneapolis Police Department.

Dodge said last Tuesday Champion took the puppy to the Loring Post Office. The puppy was in a box with a priority sticker on it.

“A puppy is a definite no-no,” said Pete Nowacki with the U.S. Postal Service.

Postal workers didn’t know right away about the puppy inside, until the box fell off the counter.

“Apparently the puppy must have moved at that time and the box had shaken and fallen. At that point, the clerk and supervisor could hear a sound like panting coming from inside the box,” recalled Nowacki.

“They could hear it in the box, they opened the box and discovered a live puppy on there with no food or water,” said Dodge.

Champion did want the puppy to get there quickly because she mailed him 2-day priority. Officials say she was mailing the puppy as a present for a relative.

“The notion of putting a puppy in a box, putting them on a plane with no food, no water, no place to do their business, it’s not going to work,” said Nowacki.

The puppy is doing fine. Champion has until Friday to make an appeal to animal control to get the puppy back. If animal controls says she can’t have the puppy back, it will go up for adoption.

Sonya Goins, Producer

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