Georgia Man Finds Help for 4 Starving Puppies After Discovering the Dogs Dumped in His Truck

The Dogo Argentino puppies are now recovering at the Florida-based DC Dogos Rescue

A trip to the gym turned into a rescue mission for a Georgia man.

According to Newsweek, after a recent evening visit to his gym in Brookhaven, Alex Towers returned to his vehicle in the parking garage outside the facility and found four skinny Dogo Argentino puppies abandoned in the bed of his truck.

The discovery shocked Towers but didn't slow him down. Instead of returning home from his gym trip, Towers searched for professional help for the dogs because he could see, based on the pups's protruding ribs, that the little animals needed medical assistance.

After making some calls, Towers and his girlfriend found an animal hospital that was open late and could see the puppies. The hospital, Veterinary Emergency Group (VEG), took over the care of the puppies. Once the animals settled in at the hospital, VEG reached out to a rescue it knew was well-suited to provide the canines with long-term help: DC Dogos Rescue.

DC Dogos is a Florida-based organization that helps find homes for rescued Dogo Argentinos across the country.

"We're one of the only Dogo Argentino rescues. We save dogs from all over the country and Puerto Rico, and then we re-home them across the U.S. So people tend to call us like this," Pamela Fay, the executive director of DC Dogos Rescue, tells PEOPLE about hearing from VEG. "We happened to have a foster nearby who was able to pick them up by the next morning from that clinic, and then he hung onto them for a few days, and then another volunteer drove the puppies down to Tampa."

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According to a Facebook post from DC Dogos, the four puppies found in Towers' truck were transported to the rescue's Florida farm on Feb. 10. The little litter comprises two males and two females. The dogs were estimated to be 8 weeks old upon their arrival at the rescue.

"They're doing great," Fay says of the pups, one of whom has already found a temporary home.

"The guy who drove them down actually fell in love with one of the girls and ended up fostering her," the rescue director shares.

Unfortunately, these four abandoned puppies are far from the only dumped dogs DC Dogos has seen this year. Fay says that shortly after the Georgia dogs arrived, two more Dogo Argentino puppies were found abandoned in Atlanta.

"Someone saw them off the sidewalk, off the side of the road. So clearly, they were just dumped there; they were the same age, eight weeks old. We're thinking, maybe they're from the same batch or litter," Fay shares.

Related: 10-Year-Old Transforms 'Sick and Skinny' Rescue Dog into a Loving '80-Lb. Potato on Legs' (Exclusive)

The six new arrivals have all been to the vet since landing at DC Dogos and are expected to recover from the neglect they suffered early in life. All of the dogs need to be dewormed and set up with a nutritious diet. The puppies exhibited remarkable improvement after a few days of receiving devoted care.

"They are playful, very funny, eating well, pooping all over the place," Fays says of how the Dogo puppies are doing now. "They've had their vaccines, are eating good, and are as playful as they can be. We're really glad to see that because we didn't know if they were going to be scared puppies based on how they were treated beforehand."

DC Dogos is accepting adoption applications for the puppies, though the baby dogs are not ready to go to forever homes yet. Fay says the rescue is waiting for the puppies to reach full health before moving them in with new families.

If you want to adopt a Dogo Argentino puppy, Fay encourages plenty of research before making a choice since the dogs "require a lot of stimulation and exercise."

"One day of Googling isn't enough. You need to talk to people with the breed. You need to reach out to us for advice," Fay says of how she wants prospective adopters to move forward.

"This breed was pretty rare, but they've become more and more popular, especially after they got recognized by the AKC a couple of years ago," she adds. "They are some of the cutest puppies ever, and so people want to get them, and then they realize they're too much. It's a wonderful breed, but they're just not for everybody. And so we tend to see them get dumped quite a bit once they hit maturity."

For those who aren't in a place to adopt a Dogo Argentino puppy, there are still plenty of ways to help the rescue dogs.

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"We are a 501(c)(3) nonprofit. We're 10 years old now; we were established in 2013. Donations are a big help. Fostering is a big help if someone's able to open their home. Also, follow our page and share our posts because you never know who will see them. Someone you know might be like, 'Oh, yeah. That's perfect. Let me call them.' So get the word out," Fay says.

To learn more about DC Dogos Rescue and how to support their life-saving work, visit the organization's website.

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