Three of the four puppies captured Tuesday morning took temporary shelter in a drainage pipe. A fifth escaped. (Click to enlarge)

Shrewsbury authorities are searching for the owners of five young dogs that appear to have been abandoned in town, redbankgreen has learned.

Four of the five were captured Tuesday morning and transported to the Humane Society facility in Tinton Falls for examination, said borough Animal Control Officer Henry Perez. The fifth got away, he said.

“They’re all really dirty, with mangled fur,” Perez said.

Three of the pups appear to be Wheaton Terriers, while the fifth may be a Pomeranian Fox, says Animal Control Officer Henry Perez. (Click to enlarge)

According to Perez, borough police were alerted to the presence of the pups in the vicinity of the Satellite Self Storage facility off Shrewsbury Avenue around 12:30 a.m. He said he spent several hours, with help from borough police, trying to capture them in the dark, without success.

Perez and the police returned at daylight and managed to corral four of the dogs.

“I definitely needed the help on this one,” Perez said, who said there was a fair amount of chasing involved.

Perez said three of those captured appear to be Wheaten Terriers, and the fifth may be a Pomeranian Fox. He said they all appear to be three or four months old.

“They all still have their puppy teeth,” he said.

It’s unclear if the Wheatons are siblings, and if the dogs might have been abandoned. “I think they were all dropped together, but I’ve got to start looking into that,” he said. “I don’t know where it will go.”

The fact that the five appeared to get along well suggests they’ve been together for a while, Perez said.

A check with industrial properties nearby for surveillance cameras that might have recorded animal dumping found none, he said.

The borough police spokesman could not be reached for immediate comment.