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Volunteers helping abused dog stay alive
Updated: 5/17/2005 10:53 AM
By: Kristin Smith, News 10 Now Web Staff
When Theresa Penfield got the call there was a badly abused dog on the hands of some Oswego County Sheriff's deputies, she rushed to bring the dog to safety.
She affectionately renamed him 'Stitch' soon after. Volunteering at the local SPCA, she says she sees abused and neglected dogs all the time.
But this, she says, was the worst.
"At this point, he probably hasn't had anything in his stomach, the vet said, two to three weeks," said SPCA volunteer, Theresa Penfield.
The Sheriff's Department says Stitch was found in his owner's yard, tied to a telephone pole so tightly, he couldn't move. They say he was so emaciated, they thought he was dead."
The veterinarian that's caring for Stitch now says a dog his breed and age should weigh around 90 pounds. Stitch weighs in at 30 pounds.
"You're not going to see a dog any thinner than this and still be breathing. So I mean, he's at the border line, he's fallen off the other side of the fence. There's no, he can't get any thinner than where he is. There's nothing left to lose," Scott Lescalleet of the Tara Animal Hospital Veterinarian said.
Lescalleet says he has zero percent body fat, and his organs were already beginning to shut down. He says Stitch had maybe another 12 hours left to live.
WATCH THE VIDEO
Abused animal hanging on
They say it's one of the worst animal abuse cases they've ever seen. The Oswego County Sheriff's Department found a two-year-old chocolate lab mix, starved to within hours of death. Then a neighbor, and a community, came to its rescue. News 10 Now's Kristin Smith reports.
"You can't tell me that an owner doesn't know that their dog is getting thin. And that their dog is getting downright skeleton. And that he's laying down and not moving. How can you walk past a dog every day and go into a warm house and get a hot meal and leave a puppy out there with no food or water," Penfield said.
When an animal hospital did take some x-rays of stitch, they found a bullet lodged right next to his backbone. The wound now is completely healed over the bullet.
They say they don't know how it got there. Lescalleet says Stitch is now in guarded condition, meaning he does have a chance for survival.
But he says Stitch isn't in the clear just yet, and he'll need months of care, costing thousands of dollars to bring the chocolate lab mix puppy back to health.
The SPCA says they need your help on this case and others. They say the medical bill for Stitch has already come it about $1,000, and much more work has to be done.
To donate money or food, or to find out more about how to help, contact the Oswego County Animal Welfare League SPCA at P.O. Box 4, Oswego, NY 13126. Or call Judy Spicer at (315) 625-4876 or (315) 439-2306 or call Darlean at (315) 343-7322.
Oh please God, help me find that island to send all these abusers to....and let it be sheer Hell for them!
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