Puppy In A Box!

A Minneapolis woman who tried to ship a puppy in a box to Atlanta via the U.S. Postal Service has been charged with animal cruelty.

The schnauzer-poodle mix, a “Schnoodle” puppy was sealed inside a box with no air holes.  A spokesman for the U.S. Postal Service said 39 year old Stacy Champion told a postal clerk that her package “might make some noise because it contained a toy robot.”

She paid $22 to ship the puppy package priority mail, which meant the package should have arrived in two days.  However, the woman put no food or water in the box for the dog.

Shortly after Champion left the post office, clerks said the box fell off the counter.  They contacted postal inspectors - the only employees with the authority to open a priority mail package - who released the dog who was not harmed. They could hear panting inside the package before opening it.

It “is” legal to mail certain animals, like baby chicks and ducklings but it is not legal to ship dogs and most other warm-blooded mammals via the U.S. Mail.  Law Enforcement officials said if the box had been shipped, the puppy would have been placed in a non-pressurized non-climate controlled airplane cargo hold and the schnoodle probably would not have survived the delivery.

Stacy Champion told police she shipped the Schnoodle to her son as a gift. Upon being charged, Chapman requested a refund for the shipping charges and she requested the make-shift collar around the dog's neck.