Woman IDs stolen dog by its bark in Facebook video of Missouri junk lot

A Missouri dog owner located her stolen pooch after hearing its “unique bark” in the background of a Facebook video exposing an accused pet thief’s squalid property full of horribly abused pets, police said.Authorities in Lawrence County raided a junk-covered lot Tuesday after a vigilante pet detective investigating a suspected dog theft discovered scores of trapped, terrified animals locked in tiny cages and even crammed into a dilapidated school bus.The hero sleuth, 37-year-old Melanie Self, posted video of the property on Facebook — and one dog owner was shocked to hear the distinctive bark of her missing Catahoula leopard dog in the background.“She saw my videos and sent photos and said, ‘Did you find this dog?'” Self told The Post.“I said, ‘I’m like 70, 80 percent sure.

You definitely need to contact the humane society about it.”Authorities charged the property owner — 70-year-old Susan Berry — with animal neglect and felony animal theft; a probable cause statement claimed the dog’s “unique bark” indeed helped the owner recognize her missing pooch.But Self believes the prodigal Catahoula wasn’t the only stolen dog on Berry’s property.“Around twenty different people have contacted me in that area asking if we found their dogs,” she said, explaining that residents of the small, rural community had reported their dogs lost or stolen for months before the raid.Self has worked as a pet vigilante for around four years, starting when she helped rescue a litter of trapped puppies.And when she heard a report of Susan Berry tearing down missing posters for two lost Dalmatians, she and her husband drove out to the property to investigate.“[At the property line] I called the Dalmations’ names, and I just heard an unimaginable amount of barks.

When I heard that, I told my husband, ‘Oh my god, we have to get on that property,” Self recalled.The canine gumshoes met Berry’s husband outside and asked for water for her “overh...