It’s an all too familiar sight and one most of us cannot comprehend: animals abandoned to fend for themselves but not left to roam free, instead dumped in cages or tied to railings and streetlights.
Abandoning an animal is a terrible act in of itself but the idea that you don’t leave the animal some chance of finding food and water by trapping it, can only be described as cruel.
An image of a dog dumped in Co Roscommon, in Ireland, is being shared by shocked animal lovers around the world.
Not only is the brown Lurcher dog attached to a gate with a very short chain, but is nursing 6 newborn puppies.
Thankfully, someone spotted her in the field and alerted the Irish Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ISPCA).
The poor new mom, named Emmy Lou, was left with no food or water and rescuers from the ISPCA said it was lucky she was found in time.
ISPCA Center Manager Hugh O’Toole said: “Leaving a young dog only two years old tied up without water, food or shelter most definitely put her, along with her young puppies’ lives, at risk.
“I don’t understand how anyone can think it is okay to leave a dog tied to a gate to nurse her puppies.
“With the recent level of rainfall and cold weather this week, the outcome could have been very different and I’m happy we were alerted so we could help them”, he added, according to the Irish Mirror newspaper.
ISPCA staff attempted to trace the dog’s owner but she was not microchipped, a legal requirement in Ireland, Hugh added.
Apart from being cold and hungry the dogs and her babies were in good health, the ISPCA said.
Full to capacity
“Our centers are constantly full to capacity and with very limited resources, we sometimes have had to use private boarding kennels to help the number of animals waiting to come in, once space becomes available,” Hugh said.
The ISPCA is urging animal owners to spay and neuter their pets to help reduce the number of unwanted animals.
The puppies, called Billy Ray, Dixie, Dolly, Dotty, June and Patsy, will remain at the ISPCA shelter until the New Year when they will be old enough to be rehomed.
This is such a cruel act and I hope they find the person responsible and punish them accordingly.
Please share to wish this sweet dog and her pups all the health and happiness in the world.
