BATON ROUGE - Animal Control is searching for a person who dumped a dog kennel with an animal locked inside near a Bluebonnet Boulevard business.

Bayou Title on Bluebonnet said an employee noticed the dog kennel by their dumpster Monday morning. Security footage showed someone dropping the kennel on Saturday afternoon. 

"There were a lot of tears on Monday morning. Everyone in the office is an animal lover, so it's been hard," employee Rachel Williams said.

Williams said the dog was dead when it was found Monday, but it is unclear if the animal was alive when it was discarded. A piece of chicken, a tennis ball and a bone were left in the kennel. Williams believes the dog's owner left the food on purpose. 

Williams called Animal Control for safe removal of the dog. The agency said they only deal with live animals and referred them to the City-Parish, who required the dead dog to be left on the side of the road for regularly scheduled trash pickup. Williams said multiple people driving by saw the kennel, stopped to check on the dog, realized it was dead and then came inside the business Tuesday.

"It's been a nightmare to be honest. Just trying to figure out what to do and get the dog taken care of in a respectful way. I just feel like the dog deserved better. Whoever dropped him off, I'm disgusted. I hope they see this and I hope they aren't able to think that hopefully someone saw their dog and picked it up and he's happy now," Williams said. "No. What you did was terrible."

A good Samaritan brought the dog's body to a vet for cremation. 

WBRZ received surveillance footage from a nearby business that shows the dog was dropped off by what appears to be unlicensed four-door pickup truck.

Animal Control Director Daniel Piatkieqicz reviewed the footage and said the person who dropped the dog off could be charged with illegal dumping. 

"It looks like someone was just looking to get rid of the dog's body somehow," Daniel said. "From what I saw, it looked like the dumpster was full so it looks like maybe they went there to throw it in the dumpster and the dumpster was full, so they just threw it on the side of the dumpster and took off." 

If anyone recognizes the truck or knows of someone involved, please contact EBR Animal Control.