State officials are investigating allegations that a Dundalk veterinarian improperly disposed of several dog carcasses in a trash bin outside of his office Sunday.

Baltimore County police and Health Department officials say they found the frozen bodies of several dogs in the trash receptacle outside of the Dundalk Animal Hospital on Wise Avenue on Sunday afternoon. Police had been contacted by a worker at the hospital.

Veterinarian Dr. Dennis G. Foster, the facility's owner, acknowledged yesterday that the dogs were removed from the freezer and put outside, but said the move was in response to an emergency situation.

A dead Rottweiler had been brought into the office that morning, and because it was decomposing, had to be put in the freezer immediately for sanitary reasons, Foster said. To make room, Foster said, he ordered a technician to remove smaller dogs enclosed in thick plastic body bags from the freezer and place them outside. Out of concern that passers-by might see them, Foster said, he and a technician decided to put them in the large trash bin.

He said he intended to put them back in the freezer that night, before the trash collectors arrived, but by then, the county officials had removed them.

"The situation was just an emergency, and it's not something that's routine," Foster said.

Paulette Holloway, the administrative assistant for the Maryland Board of Veterinary Medical Examiners, said the board had received a complaint about the incident and will investigate.