ANIMAL welfare officers in Donegal have expressed their horror and outrage after a starving pet dog was left behind at a house by owners who moved out a month ago.
Donegal Pet Rescue (DPR) say the case of the Boxer dog – which they have named Chance – is one of the worst cases they have dealt with in recent times.
Gardai in Carrigans are investigating the incident, said DPR spokesman Ryan McCauley.
Ryan told donegaldaily.com: “As the sun has shined putting everyone in good humor this week, we at Donegal Pet Rescue have had to deal with one of the most severe cases of animal cruelty that we have seen in the county in quite a while.
“It is just so hard to believe that in the year 2012 we are still having cruelty cases in Ireland. We received a call to attend to a Boxer that had unfortunately been left behind when his owners moved out of their house almost a month ago according to our information so far.
“We decided to call this poor boxer CHANCE. Chance’s living conditions were terrible; he had been lying in his own feces and had no access to food or fresh water.
“Chance did not have the energy to even stand up or walk when rescued, all he could do was lift his head and look up through his big sad eyes. Chance had almost given up on life itself. Our first point of call was to ring ahead to the vets to get Chance seen as quickly as possible as we had not seen a dog in such a bad state before.
“On examination by the vet we discovered that Chance weighed less than half the normal weight of a boxer his age.
“He also had many more things that are still worrying to us. Chance’s skin is in a terrible condition due to the lack of nutrition.”
Chance has several infections to his body and is now been treated with antibiotics, these infection include several open and weeping sores due to the fact of him not being able to get up and were his bones are protruding trough his skin, said Ryan.
CAN’T WALK
The charity officer went on: “His joints have all weakened and he finds it very hard to walk. We are now getting him settled in special bedding to protect his fragile bones and help ease his sores that are all over his body.
“The next few weeks will be very hard on Chance as he will have to adjust his eating pattern slowly to help put his stomach back in shape and we just pray that he has not done any lasting damage to his organs.”
The dog will be put on a strict diet with special food.
Ryan added: “We at Donegal Pet Rescue and the local Garda office in Carrigans are appealing to members of the public for any information on the dog we now call Chance and his previous owner.”
* You can contact Donegal Pet Rescue on 0862222006 or Carrigans Garda Station on 074 9140113.
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