The Freeborn County Humane Society is asking for the public’s help identifying any information tied to a dog found dead Sunday in a ditch north of Gordonsville.

The dog, believed to be an American bulldog and pit bull mix, was between 1 and 3 years old and was not neutered, according to Ryan Arbuckle, assistant Humane Society shelter director. It was found dead in a large plastic dog crate with a shut metal swinging door on 120th Street about 500 feet from the road’s intersection with Freeborn County Road 26.

Arbuckle said a woman who lives on the street passed the dog in the crate on her way home and reported it to the Freeborn County Sheriff’s Office.

Inside the crate was a fitted bed sheet and two metal dishes, he said. The dog, which was brown and red in color, was wearing a large, black nylon buckle-style collar.

Arbuckle said he believes the dog was still alive when it was thrown into the ditch, though there could be a possibility it wasn’t.

He estimated the dog had been dead for three to four days, and it appeared to have tried to chew through the crate.

Arbuckle said he thinks the cause of death was dehydration, exhaustion and starvation.

Sheriff’s detective Chuck Malepsy said there was no identification on the collar and no indication as to when the animal could have been placed in the ditch.

He said the Sheriff’s Office is not conducting an investigation into the animal’s death.

If anyone has any information, they are asked to call the Sheriff’s Office at 377-5200 or the Humane Society at 373-8501.