Puppy survived despite being put down, declared dead and thrown in a dumpster

Meet Wall-e, the three-month-old puppy who miraculously survived being put to sleep and now has a new leash on life.

He was one of a litter of pups found abandoned outside the animal shelter in Sulphur, Oklahoma.  A veterinary surgeon decided they were too sick to survive and put them down.

But although Wall-e was declared dead by the vet, the puppy had other ideas and the following morning Animal Control Officer Scott Prall heard whimpering coming from the dumpster where his body had been placed.

When he looked inside, he found the puppy wandering around.

'He was just as healthy as could be,' Prall told News9.com. explaining that Wall-e was named after the earth's only survivor, a waste-collecting robot, in the 2008 animated film of the same name.

Local vet Amanda Kloski, from the Arbuckle Veterinary Clinic, took him in, and when his great escape story found its way onto Facebook, the clinic was inundated with calls from people wanting to adopt him.

'He needs a really special home because he's really special,' said Kloski who was today deciding on which home would best suit Wall-e.

Campaigners claim there would have been no need to put to sleep any of the the puppies if Murray County had a better animal shelter, and are trying to raise enough money to build a bigger facility.