Minn. Woman Charged with Cruelty in Puppy Mailing

(CBS/AP) A 4-month old puppy is alive thanks to some heads-up Minneapolis postal workers, who became suspicious when a box left by a female customer fell off the counter.

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Postal Service spokesman Pete Nowacki says the priority mail package left at a post office Jan. 25 was then opened by employees, who found the poodle mix puppy inside, panting hard.

Minneapolis woman Stacey Chapman, 39, has been charged with animal cruelty for trying to mail the pooch to Atlanta in a sealed box with no air holes.

Police Sgt. William Palmer says without the postal workers' intervention the puppy would certainly have died in the airplane's unheated and non-pressurized cargo hold. The animal also had no food or water.

The dog was taken to the city's animal control facility.