Wheeling-area man accused of abandoning dog at Pittsburgh International Airport
A West Virginia man is accused of abandoning a dog at Pittsburgh International Airport last week in the second such incident in about 2½ months.
Allegheny County Police, who patrol the airport, said they charged David Mittelberger Sr., 68, of Windsor Heights, W.Va., near Wheeling, with abandonment of animals, animal neglect and cruelty to animals. Charges were being mailed to Mittelberger via summons.
Allegheny County Police spokesman Jim Madalinsky said investigators believe Mittelberger was planning to fly to California when he tied the chihuahua mix named Mikey to a pole in the airport’s short-term parking garage.
Madalinsky said attempts to reach Mittelberger have been unsuccessful.
Mikey, the dog, remains in the care of the Ohio Township group Animal Friends, Madalinsky said. The shelter has determined Mikey has “an active infection in his mouth and requires significant dental care.”
“We are working with the state dog warden and Animal Friends to secure a court order allowing Mikey to receive the proper care,” Madalinsky said, adding that the dog is not available for adoption.
This is the second such incident at the airport in about 2½ months.
An Armstrong County woman was ordered to stand trial on charges she abandoned her dog at the airport in August.
Allison Lyn Gaiser, 44, of East Franklin, is scheduled to be arraigned in Allegheny County Common Pleas Court on Dec. 1, court records show. Gaiser, who is representing herself in court, waived a preliminary hearing Oct. 16.
Allegheny County Police said Gaiser abandoned a brown and white male French bulldog near the airport’s short-term parking lot before getting on an Aug. 4 flight to a resort in Mexico.
The dog was found unattended in a stroller at about 5:30 a.m. that day. It wore a dog license and had an identification microchip. A bag of dog food was found in a bowl under the stroller, but there was no water.
Gaiser faces two counts of neglect of animals, two counts of cruelty to animals and one count of abandoning a dog within the state.
Justin Vellucci is a TribLive reporter covering crime and public safety in Pittsburgh and Allegheny County. A longtime freelance journalist and former reporter for the Asbury Park (N.J.) Press, he worked as a general assignment reporter at the Trib from 2006 to 2009 and returned in 2022. He can be reached at jvellucci@triblive.com.
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