The Tuscarawas County Humane Society is asking the community to help them identify this man who was caught on camera abandoning a golden retriever and a pig at their shelter Wednesday night. (Video by Kelly Fenton Schoelles)

New Philadelphia, Ohio (WJER) - The Tuscarawas County Humane Society is using the power of social media to try and identify a person recorded abandoning two animals overnight. 

A security camera video posted on the group’s Facebook page shows a man in a ski mask pull up in front of their shelter on Tall Timber Road in a small, silver SUV around 8:40 pm Wednesday. The man is shown tying a golden retriever to a signpost and leaving behind pot-bellied pig in a crate. Someone eventually discovered the animals and notified the sheriff’s office. By then, they had been there alone for about four hours. Humane society officials say they’re doing ok, though. 

Board Vice President Kelly Schoelles says she felt compelled to share the video in the hopes that someone out there could help them identify the man who did this. 

“When I watched it, it’s kind of what we deal with so at first I was just like ok. You just kind of go into survival mode, ‘What do we need to do for these animals?’ But when I watched the dog watch him drive away, my heart just broke for that dog,” she says. 

Schoelles says the county dog pound takes owner surrenders, so the person on video should have gone there.

“We would have taken the pig if they just would’ve called us and told us the circumstances and why they needed to surrender the pig. We may have possibly even taken both of them depending on the circumstances. All they had to do was call us,” she says.  

Schoelles says that person could face animal abandonment and possibly neglect charges.  

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UPDATE: The man in the video has since been identified as Eric Briggs of Strasburg. He has been charged with cruelty to animals and abandoning animals. He is scheduled for arraignment in New Philadelphia Municipal Court on March 28th.