AN OHIO MAN accused of zipping six bulldog-mix puppies into a suitcase and leaving it next to a rubbish bin might have gotten away with it if he had remembered to remove the luggage tag bearing his contact information, authorities said yesterday.

A Toledo Area Humane Society officer filed two misdemeanor charges of abandoning animals against Howard Davis, 53, of Toledo, this week, according to court records. Davis was not arrested, and he could not be found for comment.

“It’s unfortunate he chose to abandon the dogs,” said John Dinon, the Humane Society’s executive director. “If he had just called us and said he couldn’t care for them, we would have taken them and he wouldn’t have been charged with a crime.”

Passers-by found the suitcase containing the three female and three male puppies outside a business on April 4, authorities said. The pups were about 4 weeks old.

The mother matches the description of a dog licensed to Davis and was identified as his dog by people who also said he had been trying to sell the puppies, Dinon said.

Davis told a Humane Society officer that he had given the dogs to someone in Michigan and had not abandoned them, Dinon said.

The puppies were in good shape so must have been found shortly after they were left, Dinon said. The mother was a bit thin, he said — not unusual for a dog nursing puppies.

The dogs will be sent to a foster home until they are ready for adoption. Davis is scheduled to appear in Toledo Municipal Court on April 13.