Missing Rutgers PTSD Service Dog Found on Railroad Tracks

NEW BRUNSWICK, NJ - A Rutgers University service dog being trained to help veterans with PTSD ran off New Year's Day, and was found alive late Monday night on the NJ Transit/Amtrak railroad tracks in Edison. His paws were cut up and he had to be rescued by Edison firefighters, who cut a hole in the fence to get him off the tracks.

Moe, a Rhodesian Ridgeback, was being trained by the Rutgers Companion Animal Club, a student-run organization at Rutgers. The dog was just about to be placed with a veteran with post-traumatic stress disorder when he ran off in the early morning hours of Jan. 1, after he was spooked by New Brunswick's popular New Year's Eve fireworks. The dog ran off from where he was being kept in an apartment near Richardson and Huntington streets.

“He was spooked by the fireworks and bolted through the front door,” Moe’s trainer, Nicole Sadori, told Patch.

The dog ran into Buccleuch Park and his handlers lost sight of him from there.

Since he went missing, members of the club have been posting fliers, posting on Facebook and contacted CBS 2 News. They told people not to chase Moe, as he would only run. Only a few hours after CBS2’s story on the missing dog aired on Monday evening, Moe was spotted by a young couple in Edison.

“(They) saw him through a fence on the railroad tracks and they were nice enough to try and get onto the railroad tracks, onto the railroad bed,” program director Janice Wolfe told CBS. “They had seen the piece, so they called up, called Nicole, and said, ‘I think we found your dog.”

Moe had to be rescued by the Edison Fire Department, who cut a hole in a fence to get him out. His paws were cut up and he was badly shaken up, rescuers said.

“I completely 100 percent credit CBS with this dog coming back,” Wolfe said. “He was in a bad spot. It’s raining, it’s horrible out and he would have been dead.”

He is currently being treated at an emergency veterinarian hospital and is in stable condition and expected to recover. The group says it is accepting donations to pay Moe's medical bills.

The Rutgers Companion Animal Club is a student-run organization at Rutgers University, which fosters service dogs in training with Merlin's Kids. Merlin's Kids rescues shelter dogs and trains them to be service dogs for disabled children or veterans. They currently have 11 dogs being fostered at Rutgers. Including Moe, there's Larry, Princess, Miss Gretchen, Decker (formerly Kink), Pinky, Echo, Diamond, Avery, Samuel and Willow. All the dogs live on campus with students while completing their public access training.

Photo from the fundraising page of Merlin's Kids, Rutgers chapter